PARIS (Realist English). French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed former defense minister Sébastien Lecornu as the country’s new prime minister, charging him with the urgent task of securing parliamentary approval for the 2026 budget.
Lecornu, 39, faces the challenge of overcoming fierce resistance in the National Assembly to planned austerity measures. Opposition to those measures led to the resignation of his predecessor, François Bayrou, earlier this week.
A member of Macron’s pro-presidential Renaissance party, Lecornu had already set a milestone as France’s youngest-ever defense minister. His appointment as prime minister makes him the fourth person to hold the office under Macron in the past year — a sign of the continuing political instability gripping the government.
By choosing Lecornu, Macron is seeking to consolidate his parliamentary position and push through unpopular economic reforms aimed at stabilizing France’s strained public finances.
