Speaking to the nation in a televised address on Thursday, Macron said he would name a new prime minister in the “coming days”.

“The mandate you have given me is for five years, and I will exercise it until the very end,” Macron asserted during the 10-minute speech.

He pointed blame at his opponents on the far right for bringing down the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier. He said they chose “not to do but to undo”.

“They chose disorder,” he said, adding the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front”, and stressed that “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility”.

A total of 331 lawmakers in France’s 577-seat National Assembly voted to remove the government in the no-confidence vote on Wednesday, forcing Barnier to step down after three months in office – the shortest tenure of any prime minister in modern French history.

Barnier submitted his resignation in a meeting with Macron at the Elysee Palace earlier.

Macron “took note” of the resignation and asked Barnier and his government to continue in a caretaker capacity “until the appointment of a new government”, the Elysee said in a statement.

Barnier’s removal came after snap parliamentary elections in June and July resulted in a hung house, with no political force able to form an overall majority and the far right holding the key to the government’s survival.

Allies in Macron’s camp have joined the chorus urging swift action. After the snap elections, it took Macron nearly two months to appoint Barnier.

“I recommend that he proceed quickly to the appointment of a prime minister, it’s important. We must not leave things up in the air,” National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet told France Inter radio before meeting Macron earlier on Thursday.

Francois Bayrou, whose name is often invoked by French media as a possible successor to Barnier, was due to have lunch with Macron, Le Parisien newspaper and other media reported. Bayrou is a veteran centrist politician and a close Macron ally.

Outgoing Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu has also been noted as a possible candidate for prime minister. There was no word yet of a possible Macron meeting with him.

The political turmoil in France further weakens a European Union already reeling from the collapse of Germany’s coalition government and comes just weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Any new prime minister will face the same challenges that led to Barnier’s downfall, notably pushing the 2025 budget through a deeply divided parliament at a time when France needs to fix ailing public finances.

“This is the logical conclusion of what France and its lawmakers are at the moment: a mess,” 75-year-old Parisian Paulo told the Reuters news agency, commenting on the latest developments.

Analyst Jean-Christophe Gallien said the lack of a majority in parliament would continue to be an obstacle to the president’s ability to govern.

“What happens next is difficult to understand now. This National Assembly is without any kind of majority. There are only minorities,” Gallien, a lecturer of political science at the Sorbonne University said.

“There are 13 political groups. And there is no solution for the moment.”

A French president cannot be pushed out unless two-thirds of lawmakers decide he has gravely failed to fulfil his role, according to a never invoked article of the constitution.

Some 64 percent of voters want Macron to resign, according to the Toluna Harris Interactive poll for RTL broadcaster. A small majority of voters approve of parliament bringing down Barnier, but many are worried about its economic and political consequences, the poll suggested.Under French constitutional rules, there cannot be a new parliamentary election held before July.

Names for a new prime minister were swirling before Barnier even tendered his resignation on Thursday morning, including Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and centrist former presidential candidate François Bayrou.

But finding a name that would not immediately be shot down by one of the large parliamentary factions could take some time, as it did in the summer, when former PM Gabriel Attal stayed on as caretaker for two months.

Barnier is likely to be asked to remain in post in the interim.

Barnier’s government collapsed after MPs voted overwhelmingly in support of the motion against him, just three months after he was appointed by Macron.

Wednesday night’s vote was the first time a French government had been voted down by parliament in more than 60 years.

Marine Le Pen’s far right and the left-wing New Popular Front both united to censure Barnier’s government after the former Brexit negotiator used special powers to force through his budget without a vote.

A total of 331 voted in support of the motion, far more than the 288 required for it to pass.Barnier is now obliged to present the resignation of his government, while the budget which triggered his downfall was automatically withdrawn.

As president, Macron is constitutionally unaffected by Barnier’s resignation.But many opposition politicians are increasingly open about wanting to force him to resign and call early presidential elections – something Macron has insisted is off the cards.

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP), which won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, had previously criticised Macron’s decision to appoint centrist Barnier as prime minister over its own candidate.

Alongside the far-right National Rally (RN), it deemed Barnier’s budget – which included €60bn (£49bn) in deficit reduction – unacceptable.

Marine Le Pen, the RN leader, said the budget was “toxic for the French”.Ahead of the vote, Barnier told the National Assembly that voting him out of office would not solve the country’s financial problems.

“We have reached a moment of truth, of responsibility,” he said, adding that “we need to look at the realities of our debt”.

“I did not present almost exclusively difficult measures because I wanted to.”

In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday, Le Pen said there was “no other solution” than to remove Barnier.

Asked about the French president’s prospects, she replied: “I am not asking for the resignation of Emmanuel Macron.”

Many of her allies, however, are increasingly openly hoping they can force him to resign. RN adviser Philippe Olivier told Le Monde the president was “a fallen republican monarch, advancing with his shirt open and a rope around his neck up to the next dissolution [of parliament]”.

No new parliamentary elections can be held until July, so the current deadlock in the Assembly – where no group can hope to have a working majority – is set to continue.

A total of 331 legislators in France’s 577-seat lower house of parliament on Wednesday voted to remove 73-year-old Barnier’s centrist minority government.

Far-left and hard-right opposition parties united to pass the motion after Barnier used special powers to push through budget measures without a parliamentary vote.

Following the vote, Parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet confirmed Barnier would now have to “submit his resignation” to President Emmanuel Macron and declared the session closed.

He was expected to tender his resignation and that of his government to the president shortly after.

Reacting to the vote, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said pressure was now piling up on President Macron even though she was not calling for his resignation, adding Macron alone had the last say on the matter.

Meanwhile, Mathilde Panot, the head of the parliamentary faction of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters, “We are now calling on Macron to go,” and urged for “early presidential elections” to solve a deepening political crisis.

The French president will address the nation Thursday evening in a televised speech, the Elysee presidential palace said shortly after the vote concluded.

Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator was personally appointed by President Emmanuel Macron as the prime minister in September after a snap election in July resulted in a hung parliament.

His government is France’s first to be toppled in a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years.

The left and far right punished Barnier for opting to use special constitutional powers to ram part of an unpopular budget, which sought 60 billion euros ($63bn) in savings in an effort to shrink the deficit, through parliament without a final vote.

France has a public deficit hitting approximately 6.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) and Barnier has been eager to bring the deficit down in line with EU rules, which require countries to have a budget deficit ratio of 3 percent.

France can not hold a new parliamentary election before July.

Any new prime minister would face the same challenges as Barnier in getting bills, including the 2025 budget, adopted by a divided parliament.

Macron could alternatively ask Barnier and his ministers to stay on in a caretaker capacity while he takes time to identify a prime minister able to attract sufficient cross-party support to pass legislation.

A caretaker government could either propose emergency legislation to roll over the tax-and-spend provisions in the 2024 budget into next year or invoke special powers to pass the draft 2025 budget by decree – though jurists say this is a legal grey area and the political cost would be huge.