Sébastien Lecornu in Valence, France, on Sept. 1, 2025. Credit – Romain Doucelin—NurPhoto/Getty Images
Sébastien Lecornu has been appointed France’s fifth Prime Minister in less than two years, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old, who has served for the past three years as France’s armed forces minister tasked with responding to the war between Russia and Ukraine, is the only minister to have remained in Macron’s government since the President was elected in 2017.
“The President of the Republic has entrusted me with the task of building a Government with a clear direction: the defense of our independence and our power, the service of the French people, and political and institutional stability for the unity of the country. I wish to thank him for the confidence he has shown me by appointing me Prime Minister,” Lecornu said in a statement on social media.
Lecornu’s appointment follows the collapse of France’s government after a vote of no confidence on Monday that ousted 74-year-old Francois Bayrou from the post. Bayrou had called the vote in an attempt to pressure lawmakers to back an unpopular budget proposal aimed at reducing France’s fiscal deficit. Bayrou’s removal was the latest political upheaval for the country since Macron called snap elections in June last year in an attempt to bolster support for the political center, which resulted in a hung parliament.
“I want to sincerely tell our compatriots that I understand their expectations and that I know the difficulties,” Lecornu added in a separate post. “We are at work, with humility, and we will do everything to succeed.”
“The Prime Minister’s actions will be guided by the defense of our independence and our power, serving the French people, and the political and institutional stability for the unity of our country,” Macron said in a statement released by his office.
Macron loyalist
Lecornu entered politics at 19, becoming the country’s youngest parliamentary assistant. He served in several local and regional political positions as a member of the conservative Les Républicains party before joining Macron’s centrist movement in 2017 when he was appointed Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition.
He has remained a Macron loyalist since.
He waspivotal to the government’s response during the yellow vests movement—populist anti-government protests from 2018 to 2020 that were triggered by planned hikes in fuel taxes and a rising cost of living. At that time, Lecornu oversaw the “grand debate,” a three-month national dialogue to hear out the grievances of the French public. He has also served posts in French overseas territories, including in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe from 2020 to 2022. There, he oversaw the government’s response to COVID-19 protests and strikes, offering talks on autonomy for the territory in 2021.
Lecornu was appointed as France’s youngest defense minister in May 2022, overseeing the country’s military buildup in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In that role, he led the uptake of a 413 billion euros defense spending package for 2024-2030. He is also involved in local-level politics, including serving as a councilor in his home district of Normandy.
But Lecornu has run into some controversy in the past for entertaining far-right leader Marine Le Pen at a secret dinner to discuss Ukraine last year. He was also reportedly told by former French Prime Minister Michel Barnier that he was not present enough at European Union foreign affairs and defense meetings in Brussels.
Budget challenges await Lecornu
Lecornu’s first task is passing a 2026 budget. Macron “instructed him to consult the political forces represented in Parliament with a view to adopting a budget for the Nation,” according to the President’s statement.
But doing so will be no easy task. France has faced spiralling national debt that reached three trillion euros earlier this year—or 114% of the country’s gross domestic product. Credit agency Fitch will reassess the country’s debts on Friday, which could raise borrowing costs.
Bayrou had proposed a plan that would cut welfare spending, among other measures, in order to reduce the country’s debt, but the plan was voted down with 364 lawmakers against to 194 for. Barnier, Bayrou’s predecessor, was also ousted in December after trying to pass a deficit-reduction budget proposal. Passing a budget will require Lecornu to get the backing of enough lawmakers in a government that has been fractured between Macron’s governing coalition, the far-left, and the far-right.
After Lecornu passes a budget, if he can, he will then be tasked with proposing the formation of a new government, according to Macron’s statement. Until then, the current cabinet will continue.
Mixed reactions from parliament, protests from public
Lecornu’s appointment was met with mixed reactions from parliament members.
Centrist Marc Fesneau from the MoDem party, which Bayrou had led, said political parties should work towards reaching a consensus “for the stability of the country and its recovery, especially its budget.”
Édouard Philippe, who served as Macron’s first Prime Minister from 2017 to 2020 and leads the center-right Horizons party, told French network TF1 TV that he has known Lecornu for a long time since they were both elected in Normandy.
“He knows how to debate and he’ll need this talent for debate and listening to find a deal in circumstances he knows are pretty complicated,” Philippe said.
But others on the left and right of the political spectrum were less enthused about the new Prime Minister.
Socialist Brun from the left-wing Socialist party told French broadcaster BFM TV that the news was “a slap in the face for parliament” and “a slap in the face for voters.” Earlier reports had suggested that Macron was considering appointing a candidate backed by the left in order to broaden his coalition to include the Socialists.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said Lecornu should renounce the use of Article 49.3 of the French Constitution—which lets the government pass a bill without a parliamentary vote—in order to show “a change in approach” from previous governments.
Le Pen, despite her connections with Lecornu, posted on X that with the appointment the President had fired “the last cartridge of Macronism, bunkered down with his little square of loyalists.”
“After the inevitable future legislative elections, the Prime Minister will be called Jordan Bardella,” Le Pen added, referring to the head of Le Pen’s far-right party National Rally. After the vote of no confidence, Le Pen had urged Macron to call snap elections, instead of making an appointment.
Bardella had a more measured response: “We will judge the new prime minister—without any illusions—on his actions, his policies for France’s budget, and whether they meet our red lines,” he posted on X.
Read More: How Macron Failed France
Lecornu will also be greeted by mass protests on his first day in office. Bloquons Tout, or “Block Everything,” grassroots anti-government protests began across the country on Wednesday morning. Authorities are reportedly deploying 80,000 police in response. More strikes are reportedly planned for Sept. 18 over the government’s austerity measures.
“We are tired of [Macron’s] successive governments, we need change,” a protester told France24.
Calls for change have become common amid France’s political instability and will likely continue as Lecornu is set to face challenges enacting any new policies while opposition parties remain fixed in their positions. “We’re facing the same problem as last year,” Gesine Weber, a Paris-based research analyst at the German Marshall Fund, told Bloomberg, “where rival parties show little willingness for concessions.”
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