Paris: France's new premier said he hoped to finalise a long-awaited government "before Sunday", as President Emmanuel macron weighed a line-up that marks a shift to the right, with left-wingers due to protest on Saturday.

France edged closer to having a new government, more than two months after a hung election, as new Prime Minister Michel Barnier's office said he had pulled together a list of ministers he will submit to President Emmanuel Macron later on Thursday.

The end of the Olympics also closed out the feel-good limbo that had frozen French politics. Now President Emmanuel Macron and his newly chosen prime minister will have to figure out how to govern a France that looks on the verge of ungovernability.