France’s Macron taking a big risk in picking a loyalist to be his next PM
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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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.
