Following lengthy negotiations to assemble a cabinet and keep the nation from plunging further into a political crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a new Cabinet on Sunday.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s second attempt to assemble a team to break months of impasse and pass a much-needed austerity budget through a sharply divided parliament is represented by the roster, which combines both new and old faces.
Lecornu posted on X on Sunday, “A mission-driven government has been appointed to provide France a budget before the end of the year.”
In order to give parliament the 70 days it needs to review the plan before the end of the year, the new team must submit a draft budget for 2026 by Tuesday.
However, it will have a difficult time surviving with Lecornu’s reappointment and the removal of his two predecessors by the legislative chamber due to cost-cutting measures.
Jean-Noel Barrot continued to serve as foreign minister, according to the president’s office’s cabinet lineup.
Catherine Vautrin, the departing Labour Minister, assumed responsibility for the defense portfolio.
Macron supporter Roland Lescure is in charge of the economy, and his first objective is the budget for the upcoming year.
Both new and old
Since Macron called for hasty elections last year with the intention of consolidating his power, France has been embroiled in a political crisis. Instead, he ended up with a hung parliament and gains for the far right.
Lecornu announced his first government last Sunday after being chosen prime minister in early September, but he quit the next day when the composition was criticized for lacking enough fresh faces.
Late Friday, Macron reinstalled Lecornu, which infuriated his opponents, who vowed to remove his government as soon as possible.
Former defense minister and Macron supporter Lecornu, who has referred to himself as a “warrior monk,” stated last week that the administration should consist of technocrats but exclude anyone who plans to run for president in 2027, when Macron’s mandate ends.
Bruno Retailleau, whose right-wing Republican party declared it would not be a part of Lecornu’s government, was replaced as interior minister by Laurent Nunez, the head of Paris police, in the new cabinet revealed on Sunday.
The ministry of environmental change was to be led by Monique Barbut, the former director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in France.
Hardline advocate for high-security prisons, Gerald Darmanin, remained justice minister.
Additionally, Rachida Dati, the scandal-plagued cultural minister who will go on trial for corruption next year, kept her job.
‘Bill-by-bill’
The French president has not spoken to the public since Lecornu’s first administration collapsed, and he is currently dealing with the largest domestic crisis since taking office in 2017.
The presentation of the draft budget may be postponed as he was supposed to travel to Egypt on Monday to support a ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States for Gaza.
The prime minister has promised to cooperate with all of the major political parties.
However, he is facing criticism from a variety of political groups, including the swing-left Socialists, who have vowed to overthrow his government unless he renounces a 2023 pension reform that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Once a crucial political ally, the right-wing Republicans declared this past weekend that they would only offer “bill-by-bill” cooperation.
Any new Lecornu government will be voted out by the far-right National Rally, the largest party in parliament and a contender for power in 2027.
