Macron tightens the rope and reappoints Lecornu as prime minister

ParisAfter five days of chaos in French politics, the President of the Republic finally appointed a prime minister this Friday, hoping to end the umpteenth crisis. However, Emmanuel Macron didn't look far. In a new surrealist twist, he once again chose Sébastien Lecornu, who just four days ago announced his resignation and two days later declared that he would not return as head of government. "My mission is over," he had declared. With Lecornu's appointment, figure from the right and very close to the president, The possibility of a left-wing government is definitively closed.

"I accept – as a duty – the mission that has been entrusted to me," Lecornu wrote on X minutes after being reappointed. "We must end this political crisis that is exasperating the French people and this instability that is bad for the image of France and its interests," he stressed.

His appointment four days after resigning has created astonishment among opposition parties. "Incredible," reacted the leader of the Green Party, Marine Tondelier. France Insoumise (LFI) has already announced that it will present an immediate motion of no confidence, probably next week. At this point, it is difficult to know whether it has a chance of being passed; it will depend on the votes of the Socialists and the right.

On the far right, Le Pen's party has already announced that it will censure Lecornu. Restoring Lecornu to the leadership of the government "is a joke in bad taste, a democratic disgrace, and a humiliation for the French," said Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally.

Criticism from Macronists

Since early Friday morning, his name has been rumored to be the head of government, although the resumption of a resigned prime minister had already drawn criticism from both left-wing parties and Macron's own supporters. However, the Élysée Palace tenant maintains that Lecornu, unlike previous heads of government, has never been censured by the Assembly. Strictly speaking, the idea is true but also contrived because he resigned in the face of the more than likely censure following criticism from political parties for appointing a government with almost the same number of ministers as the executive that had been overturned by the Assembly. The problem with reelecting him "is the message we are sending to the French people," said the acting Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, this Friday.

Now Sébastien Lecornu will have to appoint a new government in the coming days, whose top priority will be approving the 2026 budget. And it will have to approve it in record time. Monday is the ordinary legal deadline for the executive to present the draft budget, although there is a way to do so later. In any case, it is an urgent matter, especially considering that France has become one of the worst performers in the eurozone, with very modest growth, one of the highest debt levels, and a deficit well above what Brussels allows.

Minority Government

However, the new government will have less political support than the previous one, which could further complicate matters. During this week's negotiations, Macron lost the support of the right-wing Els Republicans party, which is distancing itself from the government due to the presidential ambitions of its leader, Bruno Retailleau, who was previously Interior Minister. Retailleau, who aspires to be the right-wing candidate in the 2027 presidential election, has calculated that it is more advantageous to distance himself from the President of the Republic.

One of Macron's long-standing allies, Horitzons, led by former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, has also hinted that it could withdraw from the new government if it touches even a speck of pension reform, one of the concessions the new prime minister could make to the left. Philippe, like Retailleau, also wants to run in the presidential elections.

The new prime minister already warned on Wednesday that part of the problem in finding a governing agreement was the presidential ambitions of some leaders, who want to distance themselves from Macronism in order to establish a stronger profile. This complicates making concessions and reaching agreements. "All ambitions are legitimate and useful, but those who enter the government must commit to disengaging from presidential ambitions by 2027," Lecornu warned Friday night.

Fragmented Assembly

With the appointment of a prime minister, Macron removes the possibility of early legislative elections—at least for now—and turns the page on a difficult week for France, which has been swimming in political instability since June 2024, when the legislative elections left an extremely fragmented National Assembly, lacking solid majorities. This fragmentation makes censuring governments relatively easy and forming a government with sufficient parliamentary support extraordinarily complicated.

Despite the fact that France now has a prime minister, the instability is more than likely to continue until Parliament is renewed. "We are going to censure everything," Le Pen had warned this week.

Macron had gathered the leaders of the main parties at the Élysée Palace this afternoon in a meeting to seek consensus, described by the Élysée Palace as a "moment of collective responsibility." However, the meeting ended without any concrete agreement and with the parties very upset by what they consider a lack of flexibility on the part of the president. Macron had offered the left to postpone the implementation of the retirement age increase for one year, a proposal considered insufficient by progressive groups. Neither the far right of Marine Le Pen nor the radical left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon—the two parties most vehemently calling for elections—were invited to the meeting.