French president Emmanuel Macron has named a new government as he struggles to pull the country out of a political crisis, while rivals threatened to topple the lineup quickly if it failed to break with Macron’s past policies.
The new cabinet was unveiled nearly a month after the appointment of prime minister Sebastien Lecornu, who sought to obtain cross-party support in a deeply divided parliament.
Lecornu – Macron’s seventh prime minister – named Roland Lescure, a close ally of the president, as finance minister. Lescure briefly spent time in the Socialist party early in his career.
His nomination on Sunday was widely seen as a nod to the left ahead of further delicate cross-party budget negotiations but leftwing lawmakers were unimpressed, with the hard-left France Unbowed party saying a no-confidence motion would be filed immediately.
The first big test for 39-year-old Lecornu, Macron’s fifth prime minister in two years, will be a speech on Tuesday outlining his policy programme. Budget talks have grown increasingly fraught, requiring delicate trade-offs between three ideologically opposed blocs – Macron’s ruling centrist minority, the far right and the left – that can fell the minority government if they unite against it.
Lecornu’s two predecessors, Francois Bayrou and Michel Barnier, were brought down by parliament over efforts to rein in France’s public spending at a time when ratings agencies and investors are closely watching the country’s fiscal deficit, the largest in the eurozone.
Lecornu has said he appreciates the calls for a break from the past eight years under Macron’s leadership. His political opponents said Macron’s latest cabinet represented continuity.
We made it clear to the prime minister: it’s either a break with the past or a vote of no confidence,” Jordan Bardella, president of the nationalist National Rally party, said on X. “The government announced this evening … is all about continuity and absolutely nothing about the break with the past that the French people demand.”
Hard-left lawmaker Eric Coquerel said on X: “For the third time since the July 2024 elections, Emmanuel Macron is once again imposing on us a government of losers and policies that have been rejected at the ballot box.“
Former finance minister Bruno Le Maire, who oversaw France’s “whatever it costs” response to the Covid-19 pandemic, was appointed defence minister. He will now shape French thinking on how Europe should bolster European security as the US president, Donald Trump, demands the European Union do more to support Ukraine.
Several key ministers remained in their posts, including Jean-Noël Barrot at the foreign ministry, Bruno Retailleau at interior and Gérald Darmanin at justice.
France Unbowed lawmakers reiterated their call for a presidential election – something Macron has ruled out.
Lescure will face a tough balancing act: securing either support or abstention from the Socialists while preserving Macron’s pro-business legacy and keeping conservatives and liberals onboard.
The Franco-Canadian and former senior executive at Natixis Asset Management will also need to be mindful of the far right’s budget sensitivities, given their readiness to try toppling the government once more.
To win over the Socialists, Lecornu has proposed a wealth tax long demanded by the left, and ruled out using special powers to push the budget through parliament without a vote. They have so far called his overtures insufficient.
“Without a change in policy, the Socialists will vote against the government,” Socialist party secretary general Pierre Jouvet told BFM TV.
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