Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu unveiled a new cabinet on Sunday in an effort to try to secure parliamentary approval for a 2026 budget and defuse a deepening political crisis.
Lecornu, who resigned on Monday last week only to be reappointed by President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, picked Roland Lescure to remain as finance minister.
But he also turned to some new faces in an attempt to woo opposition parties in France’s hung parliament, whose support he will need if he is to survive expected challenges to his leadership. Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez was appointed interior minister.
The new government will meet to finalise a draft budget for 2026 on Tuesday, before presenting it to parliament.
“A government has been named with a mission to give France a budget by the end of the year,” Lecornu said on X. “Only one thing counts: the interest of our country.”
Since snap legislative elections last year resulted in a hung parliament, Macron has appointed and lost three prime ministers as they struggled to finalise a 2026 budget that would cut France’s deficit.
The deficit is set to hit 5.4 per cent of GDP this year, and investor concerns about the country’s ability to reduce it have roiled financial markets and pushed up France’s borrowing costs.
Lecornu has insisted the deficit must be reduced in 2026, but has offered some leeway to try to win over opposition parties, saying it should be between 4.7 per cent and 5 per cent.
By presenting the draft 2026 budget this week, it could potentially be in place by year-end after going through the required 70 days of negotiations in both houses of France’s parliament.
But Lecornu’s survival as prime minister will be immediately put to the test.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right Rassemblement National who is demanding fresh elections, said on Sunday that her party would propose a parliamentary motion to censure Lecornu as soon as Monday.
Mathilde Panot, a member of the far-left La France Insoumise, said on X: “Advice for the new entrants [in the cabinet]: don’t unpack your boxes too quickly.”
Although most parties apart from the RN are keen to avoid new elections, they are so far apart on key issues including the budget that compromise may not be possible and Lecornu’s premiership could fail for a second time.
The Socialist party has demanded a suspension of Macron’s unpopular pensions reform as a condition of its backing for the 2026 budget and the government.
But the centre-right Les Républicains could withdraw their support for the government if the pensions overhaul, which will raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, is jettisoned.
Bruno Retailleau, the leader of LR who was interior minister in Lecornu’s previous cabinet, said on Saturday the party should no longer be in the government.
On Sunday, LR kicked out six members who signed up for posts in Lecornu’s new government.
Other appointees to the cabinet include Jean-Pierre Farandou, the former head of railway group SNCF, as labour minister.
Gérald Darmanin, a long-serving member of successive cabinets during Macron’s two terms in office, was reappointed justice minister.
Macron, who has yet to comment since Lecornu resigned on Monday last week, is due in Egypt on Monday for a summit focused on ending the war in Gaza.
Credit: Source link
