President Emmanuel Macron has moved quickly to appoint Sebastien Lecornu as France’s new Prime Minister.
The appointment comes almost exactly 24 hours after Francois Bayrou lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly – rejecting his bid to make £40bn in savings and cutting two of the country’s annual public holidays.
Lecornu, 39, is a Macron loyalist – he is the only minister to have served in all eight years of Macron’s presidency and ran his re-election campaign.
Publicly, the outgoing armed forces minister is a serious figure, giving little away, but is said to be lively and engaged behind the scenes.
He’s known to be a wily political operator, despite his young years.
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By picking someone close to him, Macron is again taking a big risk.
He’s choosing from a pool of centre-right politicians who’ve repeatedly failed to breach a National Assembly deadlock.
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France in ‘deep political crisis’ after no-confidence vote
This appointment will do nothing to cool tensions ahead of nationwide protests tomorrow organised by the Block Everything (Bloquons Tout) movement – it’s a big snub to the socialists and left-wing who believe they have a mandate to govern.
But Lecornu had a secret dinner with the far-right leader Marine Le Pen in 2024.
National Rally’s Marine Le Pen Pic: Reuters
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He reportedly has their tacit approval if he takes the job, and this might be Macron’s gamble: National Rally (Le Pen’s party) is the largest in the parliament.
If Lecornu can bring them onside, then he has a chance of breaching the divide and passing a much-needed budget with a deadline of 7 October nearing.