French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister on Friday evening, four days after his resignation. This is a highly controversial choice that could lead to immediate censorship by the new government after months of political stagnation.
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“The President of the Republic has appointed Mr. Sebastien Lecornu as Prime Minister and tasked him with forming a government,” the Elysee Palace said after the 48-hour deadline that Emmanuel Macron had given himself for the appointment had expired. He “gives him carte blanche,” those around him added.
“I accept – out of a sense of duty – the mission entrusted to me,” Sébastien Lecornu soberly wrote on X, arguing that the new government “must embody renewal.”
He also promised that “all issues raised” during consultations with political parties in recent days would be “open for parliamentary debate.”
By reappointing him, Emmanuel Macron risks a new attack and a new dissolution, at a time when left and right have demanded a prime minister who is not a “Macronist.”
Because his choice aroused the anger of parties even in the Macronist camp.
The radical left (France insoumise, LFI), the far right (National Rally) and the Communist Party immediately vowed to censor the next government.
National Rally MPs will “immediately” condemn the new government of Sébastien Lecornu, far-right party leader Jordan Bardella promised on Friday evening at X, condemning “a couple without any future.”
“A new weapon of honor for the French from an irresponsible man intoxicated with his power. France and its people are humiliated,” the LFI coordinator responded to this.
The Socialist Party, for its part, has “absolutely no agreement” with Sébastien Lecornu over the absence of censorship and has “no guarantees” regarding its demands, which include the suspension of the pension reform adopted in 2023 by a presidential majority, the party's general secretary Pierre Jouvet told AFP.
Even in the increasingly divided presidential camp, the scenario for Mr. Lecornu's reappointment was not unanimous. “I would not understand if there were a reappointment of a Macronist prime minister,” warned Agnès Pannier-Runacher, an early Macronist and member of the outgoing government.
“This will end badly”
Sebastien Lecornu, 39, who is close to the head of state, resigned on Monday morning, four weeks after his appointment and just 14 hours after forming his government.
But the president asked him to hold “final” talks within two days, which failed to find a solution to the crisis in an attempt to find a final agreement with political forces.
Emmanuel Macron is once again faced with a conundrum that has confronted him for more than a year: finding a prime minister capable of surviving in a parliamentary landscape without a majority, divided into three blocs (alliance left, center right, far right) following the dissolution of the Assembly in June 2024.
After two days of negotiations, Sebastien Lecornu assessed on Wednesday that the “path” was still “possible.” But a final crisis meeting between the president and party leaders, urgently convened on Friday at the Elysee Palace, did not bring further clarity.
The leftists, who demanded the prime minister from their ranks, left “stunned.” Mr Macron has not given a “clear answer” on pensions or purchasing power, complained Socialist Party first secretary Olivier Faure, refusing to give a “no-censorship guarantee” to the future leader.
“This will all end very badly” with possible “disintegration,” added the head of the organization “Ecologists” Marine Tondelier, leaving the Elysee Palace.
Coming from the right, reserved to the point that he is almost unknown to the general public, Sebastien Lecornu, who calls himself a “soldier monk,” has been the head of state’s companion since 2017, becoming an important cog in macronia.
Of all the governments since the first election of Emmanuel Macron, he has held the strategic position of Minister of Defense since 2022.
