France on the verge of naming new cabinet after months of deadlock

France is on the cusp of announcing a new government, two-and-a-half months after a fragmented snap legislative election result sent parliament into a political deadlock.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier was spotted heading to the Élysée Palace on Thursday evening to present his 38-member cabinet to President Emmanuel Macron after weeks of struggling to put one together.

The prime minister's office confirmed that a government deal has been struck.

Barnier himself was a contentious pick for prime minister, with Macron drawing ire from across the political spectrum when he appointed the former Brexit negotiator to the second-highest office in the land.

With parliament now fairly evenly split between left-wing, centrist and far-right MPs, it was unclear as to where Barnier, himself a member of the conservative Les Républicains, would get his support and who would be willing to make concessions to support him, especially given the tough political choices that the incoming government will inevitably have to make.

Macron must now approve the cabinet before it becomes official. Barnier's office said that he will do so by Sunday at the latest.

Despite the hung parliament, in which the left-wing alliance came out on top, the new government seems poised to lurch further right than Macron's centrist government has been until now.

Domestic French outlets report that Senator Bruno Retailleau, of Les Républicains, has been named interior minister, while Jean-Noel Barrot, of the centre-right Democratic Movement, will be bumped up from secretary of state for European affairs to foreign minister.

Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu will reportedly remain in post, with Antoine Armand moving to the finance ministry. Both belong to Macron's Renaissance party.

But regardless of who ultimately makes the cut, the government's footing will be precarious and it will have to get to work from day one: Barnier has already hinted that he would be open to raising taxes to deal with France's ailing finances, which he said earlier in the week are in a "very serious" situation.

Such tax hikes would likely prove unpopular among the centrist Macronists and those further to the right, who could join forces to push through a vote of no confidence in Barnier if he's not careful.