New Delhi, Oct. 9 -- French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that he will name a new prime minister in the next 48 hours, for now rejecting other options in the face of a political storm.

The naming of a replacement for outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who abruptly resigned on Monday, will - at least for now - move France away from the likelihood of snap legislative elections, another possibility that is available to the French leader but which could plunge the European Union's second-largest economy into even greater uncertainty.

The announcement from Macron's office of a prime ministerial appointment before the weekend came after Lecornu - at the president's request - spent the two days after his resignation taking t...