FRANCE: Ecologists' Ldr Says New PM Not From Her Camp, Pension Pledge Not Enough

Leaving the meeting of party leaders and President Emmanuel Macron, Marine Tondelier, leader of the environmentalist Ecologists, said, "We are leaving this meeting stunned (...). We believe we are coming away with no answers on anything, except that the next PM, who will be appointed in the coming hours, will not be from [her] political camp," reports Margaux Duguet at FranceInfo. 

• Adds "On the issue of pensions, Marine Tondelier asserts that the president addressed the "issue of postponement over time" of the age measure: "this cannot convince anyone on the left or among the Ecologists."
• "All this is going to end very badly," warns the president of the Ecologists again. "We have understood very clearly that appointing a left-wing or ecologist PM was not his option," she says.
• "The president wants to continue to keep control over Matignon," laments [Ecologists co-leader] Cyrielle Chatelain. "We have had no response on the substance of the policies," she adds, asserting that the suspension and repeal of the pension reform have been ruled out by the president."
• The downbeat comments from the Ecologists' co-leaders, whose party sits in the leftist New Popular Front alliance with the centre-left Socialist Party and others, could hint at further difficulties ahead for the incoming PM if parties of the left again refuse to countenance a budget without rollbacks on the 2023 pension reforms.