Sebastien

Four days after he resigned as prime minister, Lecornu is returning to the post.

French President Emmanuel Macron has re-appointed Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister.

Lecornu, who had stepped down from the same post on Monday, just weeks after taking office, returns in a surprise move after days of negotiations aimed at ending a political impasse in the country.

Lecornu is tasked him with forming a new cabinet, Macron’s office said in a statement on Friday.

“I accept – out of duty – the mission entrusted to me by the President of the Republic to do everything possible to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and to address the daily life issues of our fellow citizens,” Lecornu wrote on X.

“We must put an end to this political crisis that exasperates the French people and to this instability that is harmful to France’s image and its interests.”

Speaking shortly after the appointment was announced, Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Paris, said that “everything has been so unpredictable that nobody knew what to expect.”

“This is just the latest twist in what has been a dramatic week in French politics.”

Macron had met with leaders of all political parties apart from the far-right National Rally (RN) and the far left France Unbowed party earlier on Friday at the presidential palace, informed sources told the AFP news agency.

Shortly before the meeting, the presidency in a statement called on all parties to recognise the “moment of collective responsibility”, appearing to imply he could dissolve parliament if they did not rally behind his preferred candidate.

Lecornu’s re-appointment demonstrates that “clearly Macron has run out of options,” said Butler.

Following the meeting, “we heard party leaders … saying that they felt Emmanuel Macron was disconnected from what they wanted to put across on the agenda, that he didn’t understand their concerns and they felt ignored, as if the meetings had made the situation even worse,” our correspondent added.

First appointed a month ago, Lecornu, 39, had come under increasing pressure in recent weeks as he struggled to pass a budget through the fractured French Parliament amid a debt crisis.

In naming Lecornu, Macron, 47, risks the wrath of his political rivals, who have argued that the best way out of the country’s deepest political crisis in decades was for Macron to either hold snap parliamentary elections or resign.

French politics has been deadlocked ever since Macron gambled last year on snap polls that he hoped would consolidate power – but ended instead in a hung parliament and more seats for the far right.

FRENCH Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has resigned after less than a month in office.

Emmanuel Macron had only appointed Lecornu on September 9 – marking his fifth Prime Minister in the space of two years.

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Lecornu served as Minister for the Armed Forces since 2022 before being asked to serve as PM.

It comes as extremist parties continue to put pressure on France’s political establishment.

President Emmanuel Macron has faced a political crisis since he called an ill-advised snap election last summer.

His centrist bloc lost dozens of seats amid a spike in support for the far-right.

While a left wing coalition came first in the end, no party is anywhere close a majority in the French Parliament.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has named his defence minister and close ally, Sebastien Lecornu, as the new prime minister after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou resigned after losing a confidence vote.

Lecornu, 39, the fifth prime minister in less than two years, has major challenges ahead, including resolving a deepening political crisis as protests loom in the coming days.

“The President of the Republic has entrusted me with the task of building a government with a clear direction: the defence of our independence and power, the service of the French people, and political and institutional stability for the unity of the country,” the incoming prime minister said.

The French parliament – the National Assembly – on Monday voted to remove Bayrou over his proposed $51bn in budget cuts to address the country’s debt crisis. The formal handover of power between Bayrou and Lecornu is due to take place on Wednesday.

Macron’s decision to choose Lecornu, analysts say, is an indication that he intends to continue on with a minority government that supports his pro-business economic reform agenda. In the 577-member National Assembly, the left bloc, which has opposed Macron’s pro-business policy, has most seats but not enough to form a government.

The appointment of Lecornu, a one-time conservative, risks alienating France’s centre-left Socialist Party, which leaves Macron’s government depending on Marine Le Pen and the far-right National Rally for support in parliament.

“Regardless of Sebastien Lecornu’s personal qualities, his nomination is a slap in the face of parliament,” Philippe Brun, the Socialist lawmaker who has been in charge of budget negotiations, told Reuters.

However, Jordan Bardella, seen as Le Pen’s protege, seemed willing to give Lecornu a chance.

“We will judge, without illusion, the new prime minister on his merits,” he said, adding that the party still kept strict “red lines”.

Bayrou’s downfall and France’s instability

France, the European Union’s second-biggest economy, seems on the brink of yet another period of instability.

The immediate reason for Bayrou’s fall was his budget proposal for next year. His unpopular 44-billion-euro ($51bn) deficit-reduction plan, including freezing most welfare spending and scrapping two public holidays, has been widely rejected by parliamentarians.

The French budget deficit is now nearly 169 billion euros ($198bn), or 5.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), well above the 3 percent limit set by the European Union for countries using the euro. Investors worry that France’s persistent deficits will cause ever-higher debt ratios and undermine its credit score.

Before Monday’s vote, Bayrou warned lawmakers: “You have the power to bring down the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality. Reality will remain relentless: expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly.”

The prime minister’s proposals came on top of Macron’s unpopular 2023 move to raise France’s retirement age by two years to 64. At the time, the president argued that excessive pension payments were a drag on the country’s finances.

Protests expected around France

As Macron grapples with the collapse of his fourth government in less than two years, French citizens are planning to take to the streets this week in “Block Everything” protests.

The movement, which lacks centralised leadership and planning, is threatening widespread disruption this week.

“The public authorities and the government have betrayed us so much that I’m not sure they can really meet the expectations of the people,” Louise Nechin, a left-wing activist in Paris, told Reuters.

The protests have drawn comparisons with 2018’s “yellow vest” demonstrations, with protesters at the time setting fire to makeshift barricades and vehicles.

The November 2018 protests, which began over planned hikes in diesel taxes, widened into an uprising against Macron’s policies and became the biggest challenge to his presidency at the time.