French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking a new prime minister after Sebastien Lecornu's resignation. Photo / Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking a new prime minister after Sebastien Lecornu's resignation. Photo / Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron was on Thursday racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis.
The presidency said late on Wednesday that Macron would name a new prime minister within the next 48hours, indicating the appointment would come by Friday evening at the latest.
A declaration seemed unlikely on Thursday, with foreign ministers in Paris for talks on plans to help Palestinians after the Gaza war, then Macron due to attend a ceremony in the evening honouring a late justice minister who ended capital punishment.
An announcement of a new prime minister looked more likely on Friday, and could even include a Cabinet lineup, a source close to the President said.
Lecornu told French television on Wednesday evening that he expected a new PM to be named, rather than early legislative elections or Macron’s resignation, to resolve the crisis.
Unless Lecornu is reappointed, the new PM will be the eighth of Macron’s presidency.
‘Roll up its sleeves’
Lecornu resigned early on Monday after less than a month in office but Macron gave him up to Wednesday evening to find a way out of months of deadlock over an austerity budget.
Lecornu’s two immediate predecessors were ousted by the legislative chamber in a standoff over the spending plan.
The President “will name a prime minister within 48 hours”, the presidency said, adding a “path was possible” to agree a budget by the end of the year.
The escalation of the crisis has turned into the worst political headache for Macron since he came to office in 2017, with close allies deserting a head of state who now appears increasingly isolated.
Former PM Edouard Philippe said that Macron himself should step down and call snap presidential polls.
But Lecornu insisted the President should serve out his mandate until 2027, saying it was “not the time to change the President”.
Suggesting that a more technocratic government could be named, Lecornu said people in a new Cabinet should not have “ambitions” to stand in the 2027 presidential elections.
“We need a team that decides to roll up its sleeves and solve the country’s problems until the presidential election,” he said.
Rumours swirled on Thursday on who could be the prime minister.
A person close to the President, asking not to be named, said Jean-Louis Borloo, a former minister under right-wing presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, could be a potential candidate.
But the 74-year-old centrist said he had heard nothing of it and had “zero” contact with the President’s office.
Whoever is named will likely face the same problems encountered by Lecornu and his two immediate predecessors, Michel Barnier and Francois Bayrou, who were both toppled by Parliament.
After losing their majority in 2022 elections and ceding even more seats in snap polls last year, Macron’s centrists have governed in a de facto coalition with the right-wing Republicans.
But even this combination is a minority in Parliament, and any PM risks being voted out again if the left teams up with the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen.
Le Pen said on Wednesday she would thwart all action by any new Government and would “vote against everything”.
Le Pen’s anti-immigration party senses its best ever chance of winning power in the 2027 presidential elections, with Macron barred from running, having served two terms.
Critical to its hopes of survival could be the Socialists, whom Macron has long tried to woo away from a broad left-wing alliance.
But Socialist leader Olivier Faure emerged from a meeting with Lecornu earlier on Wednesday, lamenting that the PM had “given no assurance” on a key request, that a hotly contested 2023 pension reform would be suspended.
