France Macron and his prime minister face a Herculean task
France's Prime Minister Sébastian Lecornu, who was surprisingly recalled to office, has to cope with enormous tasks under immense time pressure.
11.10.2025, 06:12
SDA
The confidant of President Emmanuel Macron, who resigned on Monday following a dispute over the formation of a centre-right government and returned on Friday evening at the behest of the head of state, has to put together a new cabinet over the weekend. This time, Lecornu does not want to include any politicians who are considering running in the 2027 presidential election.
Lecornu will then have to present the budget for the coming year on Monday after a meeting of his newly formed cabinet. This is mandatory if the budget for the highly indebted country is to be finalized in time this year. If the attempt fails, the highly indebted and already politically and economically paralyzed country would be even more blocked.
Lecornu had already worked on the budget during his first term of office, which lasted just four weeks. His two predecessors in the office of Prime Minister had already failed due to the dispute over the budget: Michel Barnier had to resign following a motion of no confidence and François Bayrou lost a vote of confidence.
Lecornu threatened with a vote of no confidence
Lecornu (39) also faces a vote of no confidence next week. France's left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) and the right-wing Rassemblement National (RN) immediately announced a corresponding vote against the reappointed prime minister. Whether he will survive this is not certain.
Following his resignation, Lecornu was tasked by Macron with working with the parties to find a way out of the political crisis. After talks, Lecornu appeared optimistic. However, when the president himself went into consultations with the party leaders on Friday, it no longer seemed certain that the prime minister would receive sufficient political backing to guarantee the country's stability and get the important budget off the ground.
Pensions are being discussed again
After internal consultations late in the evening, however, it appeared that the Socialists would not automatically sanction the prime minister from the outset and that the majority of the conservative Républicains also wanted to support the future government.
After the budget, the government will be faced with another contentious issue. Under pressure from the left, President Macron has held out the prospect of delaying parts of his pension reform. This is unlikely to be enough for the opposition, while many in the government camp do not want to make any costly cuts to the reform in view of the mounting national debt and the enormous pressure to save.
Since the early parliamentary elections in the summer of 2024, France's parliament has been divided into different political blocs, none of which have a majority capable of governing, but neither do they form viable alliances and block each other. Coalitions such as those in Germany are unusual in France.
France deep in the red
Measured in terms of economic output, France has the third highest debt ratio in the EU after Greece and Italy at 114%. Government spending is also among the highest in Europe. The budget deficit recently stood at 5.8 percent. The EU opened an excessive deficit procedure against France back in July 2024.
A budget with considerable savings therefore seems necessary - but the divided parliament is divided as to whether the finances should be brought back into balance with further cuts or new taxes, for example for the particularly wealthy.
