Paris
—
French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to his post, despite accepting his resignation Monday following the collapse of his overnight government.
“The president of the republic has named Mr Sébastien Lecornu prime minister and has charged him with forming a government,” the Élysée Palace said in a statement Friday.
In a post on X mapping out his thoughts on the government he will form, Lecornu said: “We must put an end to this political crisis that is exasperating the French people and to this instability that is detrimental to France’s image and its interests.”
He was a surprise choice, rounding off a rollercoaster week in French politics.
Late Sunday, Lecornu announced his cabinet, before it was publicly criticized by his interior minister that same night. On Monday morning, he submitted his resignation – which was accepted – before Macron reversed course and asked him to quarterback the selection of his successor in a 48-hour blitz round of talks with political opponents.
Despite those efforts, for Macron, the solution to the domino-like collapse of recent prime ministers was apparently simple: more of the same.
That decision was met with anger from his opponents.
The president of the far-right National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, blasted the decision as “a bad joke, a democratic disgrace, and a humiliation for the French people,” in a post on X following the announcement.
The far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen – currently out of political office pending an appeal for campaign finance irregularities – called to immediately vote out Lecornu’s as-of-yet unannounced government and to have new elections, in a post on X.
On the far-left, Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the France Unbowed party, ridiculed Lecornu’s reappointment, adding, “Macron can do nothing other than Macron.”
The political paralysis around assembling a cabinet and passing a budget has earned France unwelcome comparisons to European countries like Italy, with reputations for political instability.
Lecornu appeared to have negotiated a safeguard against further political unrest.
In his X post on Friday, he flagged an apparent compromise he had agreed to: that any issues raised in the past days’ consultations with party leaders would be open to parliamentary debate. In his second term, Macron has repeatedly forced legislation through the National Assembly without a vote.
This isn’t especially surprising. Ahead of his disastrous cabinet announcement last Sunday, Lecornu had already waved off using this power to sidestep the French parliament again.
But Lecornu did have one surprise to share.
“All ambitions are legitimate and useful, but those who join the Government must commit to disengaging themselves from the presidential ambitions for 2027,” he wrote on X.
The move will likely exclude figures like Bruno Retailleau, the right-wing former interior minister, who is expected to run in 2027. Similarly, leaders of the far-left and far-right parties will be excluded from government, perhaps unsurprisingly, as both parties’ leaderships, including Le Pen if her appeal is successful, are expected to stand against Macron’s would-be centrist successor.
While Lecornu hasn’t yet revealed his cabinet, the final consultations with the president Friday were with Macron’s central bloc and the traditional left and right-wing parties. The far-left and far-right were excluded from discussions.
Lecornu faced broad criticism for his choice of ministers in Sunday night’s cabinet. After promising a break with the past two prime ministers, amid a divided political landscape in France, he announced a ministerial selection that featured more Macron allies than in the president’s very first cabinet in 2017.
Lecornu took nearly a month to name his first short-lived cabinet. Many in France will be closely following his choice of colleagues second-time round.
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