French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced the new government, but no one knows how much he will survive / the new executive team has a major mission
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu (right), with an image of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, on the background, during an interview with French television station France 2, Paris, on October 8, 2025. Photo: Ludovic Marin / AFP / Profimedia
The government has the main purpose of elaborating the France's budget before the end of the year. However, this purpose will depend on the compromise that Emmanuel Macron's centralists will make with the left, especially regarding the pension reform, write AFP and Le Monde.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu presented his new government on Sunday evening, just two days after being appointed again.
The new cabinet consists of both civil servants and politicians, including some who have been appointed during Lecornu's first attempt to form a government last week.
The dissatisfaction with the composition of that government determined the 39-year-old prime minister, an close ally of Emmanuel Macron, to present his resignation after only 14 hours, throwing France in a crisis.
Among those who remain in office are the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the budget Amélie de Montchalin and the Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, centralists who hold these functions from the beginning of this year.
Major targets: Adopting budget and reducing deficit
Roland Lescure, an ally of President Emmanuel Macron, who had been appointed Minister of Economy and Finance in Lecornu's failed government, will also remain in office.
Lescure faces the difficult task of adopting the budget for next year, while reducing the massive deficit of the public expenses of France, which worries the financial markets and international institutions.
Lecornu is about to present his budget plans for next year on Monday and to expose his political priorities in a speech in front of the French Parliament in the coming days.
Conservative Catherine Vautrin, who held the position of Minister of Health and Labor in the government of former Prime Minister François Bayrou, is the new minister of armed forces.
Conservatives Annie Genevard and Rachida Dati – the latter applying for mayor of Paris next year – will remain in the positions of minister of agriculture and minister of culture respectively.
Their inclusion in the government means that they can no longer claim to belong to the Conservative Party Les Républicins, the political group said in a statement issued on Sunday evening.
The statement states that the party leadership voted on Friday against participation in the next French government.
The head of the Paris police, Laurent Nuñez, will hold the position of Minister of Interior, a position previously held by the leader of LR Bruno Retailleau, who is not part of the new government. Former head of the French state railway company SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, will hold the position of Minister of Labor.
A compromise with socialists
“He was appointed a special mission government to elaborate the budget of France before the end of the year. I would like to thank women and men who have freely engaged in this government, leaving aside personal and partisan interests,” Lecornu said in a post on X.
“One thing matters: the interests of the country,” he said.
It remains to be seen how long this government will last. Emmanuel Macron has a presidential mandate by 2027, but does not have a majority in the fragmented Parliament, divided into three factions: the far right, the centrists and the left.
The far right party The National Assembly and the far left party France unsupported have already announced that they will vote against the Government. Together, they control more than one third of the places in the French National Assembly, the lower Chamber of Parliament.
The two parties demanded the dissolution of the Parliament and the organization of early elections or even Macron's resignation.
The Socialist Party, whose tacit support will be essential for the survival of the Lecornu government, indicated that it will decide if it will overthrow the new government based on Lecornu's concrete proposals, especially on a possible suspension of the controversial pensions adopted by Macron.
