French President Emmanuel Macron, seen waiting for Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein in Paris on Wednesday, reappointed the same prime minister who resigned days earlier, asking him to try to form a government again.
Michel Euler/AP
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Michel Euler/AP
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister on Friday, just days after his resignation, asking him to try again to form a government and produce a budget in a bid to break the country’s political impasse.
Lecornu’s reappointment follows days of intense negotiations and comes less than a week after he resigned due to infighting within his newly appointed government. France is grappling with growing economic challenges and growing debt, and the political crisis is compounding its problems and causing concern across the European Union.
The appointment is widely seen as Macron’s last chance to reinvigorate his second term, which runs until 2027. Lacking a majority in the National Assembly to advance his agenda, Macron faces growing criticism – including within his own ranks – and has little room for maneuver.
Macron’s office issued a one-sentence statement Friday evening announcing the appointment, a month after the statement issued a month ago when Lecornu was initially appointed and four days after his resignation.
Lecornu said in a statement on social media that he accepted the new job offer out of “duty.” He said he was charged with a mission “to do everything to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and to respond to the daily problems of our compatriots”.
Everyone who joins his new government will have to give up the ambition of running for president in 2027, Lecornu said, adding that the new government “will embody renewal and diversity of skills.”
“We must put an end to this political crisis which exasperates the French, and to this instability which is harmful to the image and interests of France,” he writes.
Lecornu abruptly resigned on Monday, just hours after unveiling a new government that sparked opposition from a key coalition partner. The shock resignation prompted Macron to resign or dissolve parliament again, as he did in June 2024. But they remained unanswered, with the president announcing on Wednesday that he would name a successor to Lecornu within 48 hours.
Political party leaders met with Macron for more than two hours on Friday, at his request. Some have warned that another prime minister chosen from the ranks of Macron’s fragile centrist camp would risk being disavowed by the powerful lower house of parliament, prolonging the crisis.
“How can we expect this to end well?” declared Marine Tondelier, leader of the Ecologists party. “The impression we get is that the more he is alone, the more rigid he becomes.”
Worried investors
Over the past year, Macron’s successive minority governments have collapsed one after another, leaving the European Union’s second-largest economy mired in political paralysis as France faces a debt crisis. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, France’s public debt stood at €3.346 billion ($3.9 trillion), or 114% of gross domestic product.
The poverty rate in France also reached 15.4% in 2023, its highest level since records began in 1996, according to the latest available data from the national statistics institute.
The economic and political struggles worry financial markets, rating agencies and the European Commission, which is pushing France to comply with European rules limiting debt.
Newly reappointed prime minister faces challenges
The two largest opposition parties in the National Assembly – the far-right National Rally and the far-left France Insoumise party – were not invited to the discussions on Friday. The National Rally wants Macron to organize new legislative elections and France Insoumise wants him to resign.
Lecornu argued earlier this week that Macron’s centrist bloc, his allies and part of the opposition could still come together to form a functional government. “There is a majority that can govern,” he said. “I feel that a path is still possible. It’s difficult.”
Lecornu will now have to seek compromises to avoid an immediate vote of no confidence and may even be forced to abandon a hugely unpopular pension reform that was one of Macron’s signature policies during his second presidential term. Passed without a vote in Parliament in 2023 despite massive protests, the bill gradually raises the retirement age from 62 to 64. Opposition parties want it abolished.
The political impasse stems from Macron’s shock decision in June 2024 to dissolve the National Assembly. The snap elections produced a hung Parliament, with no bloc able to hold a majority in the 577-seat chamber. The impasse has angered investors, infuriated voters and blocked efforts to curb France’s spiraling deficit and public debt.
Without stable support, Macron governments have stumbled from one crisis to another, collapsing as they sought support for unpopular spending cuts. Lecornu’s resignation, just 14 hours after announcing the composition of his cabinet, underlined the fragility of the presidential coalition amid deep political and personal rivalries.
