Macron will hold talks tomorrow with the leaders of centre-right, centrist and centre-left parties. The meetings are believed to be aimed at forging an agreement on a new prime minister.

Jordan Bardella, the chairman of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally who would have become prime minister if it had won the parliamentary elections in the summer, responded to Macron’s 11-minute televised address by saying: “He is ignoring the new political order.”

After Macron’s brief address, in which he said the Barnier government had been ousted “because the far right and the far left united in an anti-republican front”, Marine Le Pen responded by saying: “The no-confidence motion was not anti-republican.”

Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a rising star in her National Rally party, said it had carried out its “sovereign responsibility to reflect the will of the French people”. He said Macron’s address had been an exercise in “navel-gazing” with little meaning.

Macron said those who ousted Michel Barnier, right, did so for cynical reasons

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Macron called for MPs “to rebuild the nation”, but said: “Those who voted for the no-confidence motion are only thinking of one thing: the presidential election, preparing it, provoking it and precipitating it, with cynicism and a certain sense of chaos.”

Referring to his dissolution of parliament to hold snap legislative elections this summer, Macron said: “The dissolution was not understood, that’s my responsibility. I will never accept the irresponsibility of others.”

Lucie Castets said Macron did not admit his mistakes

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Among those first to react was Lucie Castets, the civil servant proposed by left-wing parties as a candidate for prime minister. She said it was “revolting” that Macron had referred to an “anti-republican front” formed to topple the Barnier government.

She said he had refused to acknowledge his own mistakes. “He is the chief of everything but responsible for nothing,” she told BFM television.

Macron said a “special law” would be tabled in parliament this month to allow public services to continue working without a budget and “to invest as planned for our armed forces, our justice [system], our security forces but also to help farmers in difficulty”.

On staying in power until the end of his term in May 2027, President Macron told the French people: “The mandate you have given me is for five years and I will exercise it until the very end.”

Macron said the new government would be formed “in the coming days” and would draft a new budget to be presented early next year, which he said was needed to bring investment into France.

The address to the nation was pre-recorded. It has now ended and lasted a little under 15 minutes. Macron called on MPs in the divided parliament to “work together in the service of France and the French people”.

Macron said MPs who brought down the government “only think about the prospect of a new presidential election”. Political opponents such as Marine Le Pen have been criticised for trying to force new elections, a charge which has been denied.

Macron said Michel Barnier was toppled because the “extreme right and extreme left allied in an anti-republican front”.

He added: “There cannot be new parliamentary elections for ten months. And in these conditions the [National] Assembly has the duty to do what it was elected for.”

Macron said he will serve out his presidential term of office which ends in 2027.

“I will name a new prime minister in the next few days,” Macron said. “I will charge him with forming a government in the national interest.”

President Macron has attacked political opponents on the “extreme right” and “extreme left” in his address.

“Some political groups have chosen chaos,” he said in reference to the vote of confidence which saw Michel Barnier stand down. “They don’t want to build, they want to dismantle.”

President Macron has begun his address to the French people.

Bruno Retailleau, the outgoing interior minister known for his tough stance on immigration, has ruled out working with a left-wing prime minister.

He told Le Figaro newspaper that he would be prepared to stay in his post, but added: “I will not work with the left, which has compromised itself by voting in a single bloc for the no-confidence motion drafted by France Insoumise.” The radical left-wing party is the largest in a parliamentary alliance that also includes the more moderate Socialists and Greens.

Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly and a member of Macron’s party, has urged the president to move quickly to appoint a new prime minister and avoid any “political hesitation”.

“I recommend he decide rapidly on a new prime minister,” Braun-Pivet she told France Inter radio earlier today. “There must not be any political hesitation. We need a leader who can speak to everyone and work to pass a new budget bill.”

Marine Le Pen said Barnier’s budget was “dangerous”

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Marine Le Pen of the populist right-wing National Rally has defended the decision to vote with left-wingers to oust the Barnier government.

She said the belt-tightening budget he had proposed, with €60 million in savings, was “dangerous, unjust and what’s more it would worsen the deficits”.

This morning Xavier Bertrand, a prominent member of the conservative Républicains, accused her of trying to push Macron to resign in the hope of “forcing an early presidential election” because she fears that she may be declared ineligible for political office when the verdict of her corruption trial is announced in March.

Some political opponents have called on Macron to stand down and the public backs such a move, according to opinion polls.

One, by Odoxa-Backbone Consulting for Le Figaro, found that 59 per cent of French people want the president to step down, while a survey by Harris for RTL put the figure even higher at 64 per cent, AFP reported.

Olivier Faure says his Socialist Party would be open to a deal with parties across the divide

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Since the confidence vote, signs of a potential rift have appeared among the parties that make up the left-wing parliamentary alliance, the New Popular Front.

It encompasses the radical-left France Insoumise and the more moderate Socialists. France Insoumise is demanding a hard-left prime minister, but some Socialists, Greens and Communists have indicated that they might be prepared to compromise.

Olivier Faure, the Socialist leader, is among those who have said they would be open to a deal with centrist and centre-right parties. He is pressing for them to back the appointment of a moderate left-winger. “We don’t have a majority so that means compromises,” he said.

Jean-Noël Barrot said “instability is vulnerability”

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Before President Macron’s address Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister — the country’s top diplomat for just two and a half months — has urged unity in a message on social media, saying “instability is vulnerability” at a time of international uncertainty.

President Macron himself is under intensifying opposition pressure to resign but he has ruled out quitting before his term ends in three years.

Snap parliamentary elections this summer produced a parliament split into three blocs with no overall majority, and only a prime minister acceptable to centrists, conservatives and the hard right led by Marine Le Pen will have any chance of staying in power long enough to tackle France’s colossal debt and deficits.

Some commentators fear that France is becoming ungovernable.

David Chazan in Paris

President Macron had made it known that he planned to name a new prime minister within 24 hours after the no-confidence vote that ousted the government led by Michel Barnier last night.

He has now indicated, however, that he will not do so during his crisis address this evening to a nation profoundly troubled by the political turmoil. That has sparked speculation that he is finding it difficult to identify a consensual figure able to form a government that would survive longer than Barnier’s administration, which lasted only three months in office.