French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Sebastien Lecornu as Prime Minister just four days after accepting his resignation, in a shocking move that underscores the unprecedented political paralysis gripping France.
Lecornu, 39, whose resignation was accepted on Monday after less than a month in office, has been tasked with forming a new cabinet and delivering a budget to parliament by the end of Monday, Macron’s office confirmed on Friday evening.
The terse one-sentence statement announcing Lecornu’s return stood in stark contrast to the four-paragraph announcement issued when he was first appointed in September, reflecting the extraordinary circumstances surrounding French politics.
“I accept, out 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 issues of our fellow citizens,” Lecornu wrote on social media platform X.
We must put an end to this political crisis that exasperates the French people and to this instability that is harmful to France’s image and its interests.
The reappointment follows days of intense negotiations and represents Macron’s latest desperate attempt to end a political deadlock that has left Europe’s second-largest economy mired in crisis.
Lecornu had resigned on Monday just hours after unveiling his cabinet, following fierce criticism over his ministerial selections. His departure after merely 27 days made him one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in French history.
The former Defence Minister quit after facing a barrage of opposition from across the political spectrum, with critics arguing his cabinet failed to represent the fractured parliament and leaned too heavily on Macron loyalists.
His cabinet featured 10 ministers from Macron’s centrist party, even more than in the president’s first government when he swept to power in 2017. The 15-member cabinet included no representation from left-wing or far-right parties despite their significant presence in parliament.
Particularly controversial was Lecornu’s decision to appoint former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire as Defence Minister. Le Maire withdrew from the planned appointment on Monday after intense backlash, acknowledging his selection had provoked “incomprehensible, false, and disproportionate reactions.”
President Macron convened a meeting on Friday with mainstream party leaders to rally support around his choice of prime minister. The session lasted more than two hours but left opposition figures deeply dissatisfied.
Leftist leaders expressed dismay that Macron would not be selecting a Prime Minister from their ranks, their indignant response suggesting his future government might prove as fragile as those that preceded it.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told reporters following the meeting: “We’re not looking for parliament to be dissolved, but nor are we afraid.”
Marine Tondelier, leader of The Ecologists party, described the proceedings as leaving her pessimistic about the outcome. “How can one expect that all this will end well?” she questioned. “The impression we get is that the more alone he is, the more rigid he becomes.”
Macron pointedly excluded Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed party from the consultations with party chiefs, a decision that sparked fury amongst those factions.
Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, condemned the decision in scathing terms, declaring he would vote down any Lecornu government.
“The Lecornu II government, appointed by Emmanuel Macron who is more isolated and out of touch than ever at the Elysee Palace, is a bad joke, a democratic disgrace and a humiliation for the French people,” Bardella stated on social media.
Marine Le Pen, currently facing an appeal over campaign finance irregularities, called for Lecornu’s government to be immediately voted out and demanded new elections.
On the far-left, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of France Unbowed, ridiculed the reappointment, stating: “Never before has a President wanted so much to govern by disgust and anger. Lecornu, who resigned on Monday, was reappointed by Macron on Friday. Macron miserably postpones the inevitable: his departure.”
Melenchon has previously called for Macron to be impeached, with 104 MPs supporting a motion for the president’s removal from office.
France’s political crisis has been spiralling since Macron’s shock decision in June 2024 to dissolve the National Assembly. The subsequent snap elections produced a hung parliament split between three ideologically opposed blocs, with no party able to command a majority in the 577-seat chamber.
The gridlock has unnerved investors, infuriated voters, and stalled efforts to address France’s spiralling deficit and mounting public debt. Financial markets have reacted strongly to the ongoing instability, with French government bond yields rising and the Paris stock exchange experiencing significant volatility.
At the end of the first quarter of 2025, France’s public debt stood at €3.346 trillion (£2.87 trillion), equivalent to 114 per cent of gross domestic product. The poverty rate rose to 15.4 per cent in 2023, its highest level since records began in 1996.
The country’s budget deficit is forecast to hit 5.4 per cent this year, nearly double the European Union’s cap of three per cent. Credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded France’s economic outlook in September, citing concerns over political instability and fiscal management.
Lecornu now faces the daunting task of delivering a 2026 budget proposal to parliament by Monday in order to get the legislation adopted by the end of the year through normal parliamentary processes. Without a budget agreement, emergency legislation may be needed to keep the government running next year on a roll-over spending plan.
Central to recent budget negotiations have been the left’s demands to repeal Macron’s deeply unpopular 2023 pension reforms that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. Opposition parties have insisted the changes be scrapped entirely.
During Friday’s meeting, Macron reportedly offered to delay implementation of the full retirement age increase by one year until 2028. Green leader Marine Tondelier dismissed the concession as insufficient to secure her party’s support.
The pension reform was rammed through parliament without a vote in 2023 despite mass protests across France, using controversial constitutional provisions that allow the government to bypass parliamentary approval. The measure remains deeply unpopular with the French public.
Left-wing parties have also demanded that wealthy citizens be taxed more heavily to address the budget deficit, proposals that have proved impossible to reconcile with conservative parties whose support Macron requires to pass any budget.
Lecornu appeared to signal a new approach in his Friday statement, indicating that issues raised during consultations with party leaders would be open to parliamentary debate rather than being forced through using executive powers.
In a surprising move, Lecornu announced that anyone joining his government must commit to withdrawing from the 2027 presidential race. “All ambitions are legitimate and useful, but those who join the Government must commit to disengaging themselves from presidential ambitions for 2027,” he wrote.
The requirement will likely exclude figures such as Bruno Retailleau, the right-wing former Interior Minister who is expected to run in 2027. Leaders of far-left and far-right parties, many of whom harbour presidential ambitions, will similarly be barred from government positions.
Lecornu is Macron’s fifth Prime Minister in less than two years, with each successive government collapsing in quick succession. The unprecedented turnover has raised serious questions about Macron’s ability to govern effectively for the remainder of his term, which runs until 2027.
Political analysts suggest Macron faces limited options: call another snap parliamentary election, resign to trigger a new presidential election, or attempt to appoint a Prime Minister from opposition ranks in a bid to forge a working coalition.
Most observers expect Macron to resist resignation, viewing it as the option of last resort. However, another collapsed government would significantly increase pressure for snap elections, a scenario widely seen as benefitting the far-right National Rally most significantly.
The National Rally is currently the largest single party in parliament following last year’s elections, though it lacks an outright majority. Opinion polls suggest the party, led by Jordan Bardella with Marine Le Pen as its most prominent figure, would perform strongly in any new election.
The ongoing crisis has drawn unfavourable comparisons between France and countries like Italy with reputations for political instability. International observers have expressed concern about the inability of the eurozone’s second-largest economy to form a stable government.
Lecornu, originally a conservative politician, joined Macron’s centrist movement in 2017 and has served in several ministerial roles including local administration and overseas territories. At 39, he became France’s youngest Defence Minister and spearheaded a major military modernisation plan running through 2030.
During Macron’s “great debate” following the yellow vest protests, Lecornu played a key mediating role in addressing public anger through dialogue. In 2021, he led negotiations on autonomy in Guadeloupe amid civil unrest, demonstrating his credentials as a political troubleshooter.
However, his brief first tenure as Prime Minister was marked by an inability to unite the fractious parliament or secure support for difficult fiscal measures required to address France’s debt crisis.
Whether Lecornu can succeed where he failed just days earlier remains highly uncertain. Opposition leaders emerging from Friday’s consultations described feeling that Macron was disconnected from their concerns and unwilling to genuinely compromise.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Paris noted that party leaders felt “ignored, as if the meetings had made the situation even worse” rather than building bridges toward a functional governing coalition.
The European Commission has urged France to take decisive action to meet EU debt limits, whilst financial markets continue to monitor the situation with growing concern about the long-term stability of French public finances.
As Lecornu scrambles to assemble a new cabinet and present a budget by Monday’s deadline, the fundamental question facing French politics remains unanswered: can any Prime Minister govern effectively when parliament is split between three mutually hostile blocs and the president refuses to acknowledge political reality?
Follow for more updates on Britannia Daily
Image Credit:
Emmanuel Macron — photo by Simon Dawson, licensed under CC BY 2.0
