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The French president reappoints the prime minister just days after quitting his job
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The French president reappoints the prime minister just days after quitting his job

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French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister on Friday, just days after quitting his job. A move that enraged some of the president’s fiercest political opponents, who vowed to vote out the new administration.
Macron, 47, hopes loyalist Lecornu can win enough support from a deeply divided parliament to pass a 2026 budget.
Facing France’s worst political crisis in decades, many of Macron’s rivals have demanded he call new parliamentary elections or resign.

The immediate reaction from the far right and far left to Lecornu’s appointment was scathing, suggesting his second stint as prime minister will be no easier than his first, which ended on Monday when he resigned after just 27 days in office.

“The Lecornu II government, appointed by Emmanuel Macron, which is more isolated and out of touch than ever in the Elysee Palace, is a bad joke, a democratic disgrace and a humiliation for the French people,” Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally party, wrote on X.

There was no immediate response from the leadership of the Socialists and Conservative Republicans, both of whom will be crucial to Lecornu’s survival.

Passing the 2026 budget is Lecornu’s priority

Lecornu’s most pressing task will be to deliver a budget to parliament by the end of Monday.
“I accept – as a matter of duty – the mission entrusted to me by the President of the Republic to do everything possible to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and to address the daily life problems of our fellow citizens,” he wrote on X.

“We must put an end to this political crisis that is irritating the French people and to this instability that is damaging France’s image and interests.”

Lecornu added that whoever joins his government would have to abandon personal ambitions to succeed Macron in 2027, a fight that has created instability in France’s weak minority governments and divided legislature. He promised that his cabinet would ’embody innovation and diversity’.
Macron’s entourage said Lecornu had “carte blanche”, a sign that the president was giving his prime minister sufficient leeway to negotiate a cabinet and budget.
Macron previously convened a meeting of mainstream party leaders to rally support for his choice, but angered left-wing parties when they learned one of their own leaders would not be appointed prime minister.

A new collapsed government would increase the likelihood that Macron will call early elections, a scenario that is believed to benefit the far right the most.

France’s political unrest was driven in large part by Macron’s decision last year to hold parliamentary elections, a gamble that resulted in a divided parliament between three ideologically opposed blocs.
The country’s push to get its finances in order, which will require spending cuts or tax increases that no party can agree on, has only worsened the malaise.
If the National Assembly cannot agree on a budget within the given time, emergency legislation may be needed to keep the country running next year with a rollover budget.

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