Macron Names Sébastien Lecornu as France’s Fourth Prime Minister in a Year
French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu as the country’s new Prime Minister, less than 24 hours after François Bayrou was ousted in a no-confidence vote.
At 39, Lecornu becomes France’s youngest premier in recent decades and the fourth to take office in barely a year, underscoring the volatility of Macron’s second term.
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| Image Source: ICI_Officiel |
His immediate task is not military, but political: to negotiate a budget deal among France’s fractured parties while managing a debt load that has already pushed Paris into repeated standoffs with Brussels.
Le Président de la République m'a confié la tâche de construire un Gouvernement avec une direction claire : la défense de notre indépendance et de notre puissance, le service des Français et la stabilité politique et institutionnelle pour l'unité du pays.
— Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) September 9, 2025
Je tiens à le…
The appointment comes days before a planned nationwide protest branded “Block Everything”, with authorities preparing 80,000 police officers for deployment.
Lecornu’s past experience managing unrest -- from Macron’s “great debate” during the yellow vest uprising to autonomy talks in Guadeloupe -- is likely to be tested immediately.
A former conservative who crossed over to Macron’s centrist movement in 2017, Lecornu has moved steadily upward through local and national posts.
His elevation reflects what Macron’s critics call a reflexive reliance on loyalty over consensus-building, even as opposition leaders insist the budget battle could again destabilise his government.
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