President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Sebastien Lecornu to be France’s prime minister on Friday, giving the centrist ally another shot at naming a new cabinet and getting a budget through a fractious parliament.
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Lecornu must propose a 2026 budget on Monday to get the legislation adopted by the end of the year through the normal process. Otherwise, the National Assembly may need to pass an emergency bill to keep the government funded.
The reappointment is a last-gasp attempt to find political balance to prevent the next government from collapsing, which would be likely to make snap elections unavoidable and usher in a new period of political instability.
“We must put an end to this political crisis, which is exasperating the French people, and to this instability, which is detrimental to France’s image and its interests,” Lecornu said in a statement on social media late on Friday.
Failure to form a cabinet and pass a budget would mean that Macron would either have to call a parliamentary election, pick yet another prime minister or resign – something he’s previously rejected.
Lecornu’s reappointment follows a week of frenetic horse trading in Paris after he unexpectedly quit as prime minister on Monday, blaming the intransigence of the political groups in the National Assembly.
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