Macron dismisses the possibility of elections and promises to appoint a new prime minister within 48 hours.

ParisFrance will have to wait at least until Friday to find out whether it will have a new government or whether the President of the Republic will call early legislative elections. This Wednesday evening, the deadline for resigned Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to reach an agreement with the parties to form a government and approve the 2026 budget was due, but it was not possible to close the deal within such a tight timeframe. The acting Prime Minister told President Macron that negotiations are on track and that an agreement and a new Prime Minister could be reached "within 48 hours." The Élysée Palace subsequently confirmed in a statement that the President will appoint the Prime Minister by Friday at the latest.

Lecornu's optimism and the Elysée Palace's confirmation further distance the possibility of a dissolution of the National Assembly and the calling of early elections. "There is an absolute majority of parliamentary forces that do not want elections," the acting prime minister asserted in an interview on France 2 this afternoon. In a brief public statement this morning, he had already stated that after speaking with the majority of the forces, he saw a "will" to approve the budget before the end of the year.

Sébastien Lecornu, a figure in Macron's inner circle, is now passing the baton of negotiations to the President of the Republic to finalize the government agreement. "I am a soldier-monk. Tonight my mission is over," he asserted. The response suggests he will not return to the presidency, although some reports to that effect circulated on Wednesday. The next prime minister will be the sixth of the Élysée Palace tenant's second term.

President Emmanuel Macron gave Lecornu until Wednesday to continue negotiating with the parties and suggested he would call early legislative elections if the attempt to reconcile positions on the budget and government formation failed. The threat of elections was a wake-up call for both parties such as the right-wing Republicans and the Socialists, two key parties in avoiding censure of the government and uninterested in elections that could leave them with fewer seats than the current ones.

Although Lecornu has not announced which parties will form part of the government, in recent hours the hypothesis of a left-wing executive, led by a socialist or green prime minister, has gained considerable traction. The left-wing parties, which ran in the 2024 legislative elections united under the banner of the New Popular Front, won the elections, but Macron has always refused to appoint a left-wing prime minister. All the heads of government in the last two years have been Macronists, from the right or center-right. Now he could give them a chance, although it's not clear that a progressive government could survive a vote of no confidence in the Assembly.

Cohabitation government

Socialist leader Olivier Faure on Wednesday advocated for a cohabitation government composed solely of left-wing parties and therefore ruled out an executive composed of Macronists and Socialists. There is only one exception: he would accept Macronists as the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, as these are areas that essentially fall under the jurisdiction of the President of the Republic. In principle, France Insoumise, the party considered radical left and led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, would not form part of a left-wing government, but would not censure him either.

Another clue that suggests the future government could be left-wing is that Lecornu has spoken of reducing the deficit to 5% of GDP by 2026. This is a higher figure than that projected in François Bayrou's budget (4.6%). This means that Macron and Lecornu would now be willing to accept more lenient cuts in public spending in exchange for getting the budget passed by the Parliament. It's another concession to progressive parties, which have called three days of strikes and protests in recent weeks against the cuts planned in the previous budget proposal.

Pension reform

There is also another issue on the negotiating table: Macron's controversial pension reform, approved in 2023, which extended the retirement age to 64. According to the acting Minister of Education and former Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, the Macronists might be willing to suspend the reform as a concession to the left, which has been demanding its repeal for years. However, the Socialist leader tempered expectations after his meeting with Lecornu. "We have no guarantee of a suspension of the pension reform," he asserted. In tonight's interview, Lecornu admitted that this issue is one of the sticking points in the negotiations.

The reform was approved when Borne was Prime Minister. The fact that she has raised the possibility of leaving it in limbo has drawn criticism not only from the right but also from the presidential bloc. According to the French press, the current acting Minister of Education launched the idea without having discussed it with either Lecornu or President Macron.

In any case, everything is open, and it is not ruled out that the new government will be made up, as until now, of Macronists, centrists, and the right. In that case, the Socialists could have agreed to concessions in exchange for not censuring the executive and approving the budget. According to the Ministry of Economy, pausing the reform would cost €500 million in 2026 and another €3 billion in 2027. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen's far-right, who has refused to meet with Lecornu, insists on calling for legislative elections and is increasing its demand for legislative elections. "I condemn everything. The joke has gone on long enough. It's time to blow the whistle for the end of the playground hour," Le Pen said in a message to X. Her deputy and party president, Jordan Bardella, denounced Macron for "trying to buy time and maintain his power at all costs."

If the President of the Republic ultimately decides to call legislative elections in the coming weeks, the leader of the National Regrouping Party (RNP) would be barred from running and would no longer be a member of parliament because she has been sentenced to five years of disqualification for misusing European Parliament funds. The appeals process will take place between January and February.