French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who had just been reappointed, unveiled a government on Sunday evening, composed of politicians and technicians little known to the general public and drawn from civil society, in an attempt to extricate France from unprecedented political instability.

As if to ward off the threat of immediate censorship, Mr. Lecornu announced that this new executive was "appointed to give France a budget before the end of the year."

It is Macron's Roland Lescure who now has the difficult task of presenting a 2026 budget proposal acceptable to Parliament, at a time when the country's debt has reached 3.3 trillion euros, more than 115% of GDP.

Mr. Lecornu, who resigned on Monday, the day after announcing his first government, before being reappointed on Friday by President Emmanuel Macron, appears to have learned the lessons of last week, when he incurred the wrath of the political class by reappointing most of his predecessor François Bayrou's ministers and by bringing former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire back to the Army.

Forced to form a new government urgently in order to submit a draft budget at the beginning of the week, Mr. Lecornu has certainly kept Gérald Darmanin in Justice and Jean-Noël Barrot in Foreign Affairs, as well as Rachida Dati in Culture.

But it is Paris Prefect Laurent Nuñez who succeeds Bruno Retailleau, leader of the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party, as Interior Minister. Jean-Pierre Farandou, the outgoing head of the SNCF public railway company, takes over as Minister of Labor.

Among the other new members of the Lecornu 2 government, Monique Barbut, former president of the NGO WWF France, Emmanuel Macron's special envoy to the "One Planet Summit" on Biodiversity in 2020-2021, has been entrusted with the Ecological Transition. And Edouard Geffray with National Education, replacing former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

"Only one thing matters: the interest of the country," Mr. Lecornu assured on X, thanking the ministers "who are engaging in this government with complete freedom, beyond personal and partisan interests."

The question now is how long this executive will last as the country goes through an unprecedented period of political instability since the dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024, which resulted in a chamber without a majority, divided between the left, the center-right and the far-right.

- Fragile future -

Four Prime Ministers have succeeded each other since then.

Above all, time is running out for France to adopt a budget for 2026: according to the Constitution, Parliament must have at least 70 days to examine a draft budget before December 31.

With Mr. Macron expected in Egypt on Monday for the "Peace Summit" in Gaza, the text will be presented to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday morning.

The future of this government is very fragile: with the exception of the Socialist Party (PS), the entire left has already called for its immediate censure, as have the National Rally (RN, far right) and its allies.

But the Socialist group (69 MPs) is also threatening censure, irritated by four weeks of fruitless negotiations regarding its demands. In particular, it wants the immediate and complete suspension of the pension reform, the most emblematic of Mr. Macron's second five-year term, adopted with great difficulty in 2023 to push back the legal retirement age to 64 despite months of protests.

For its part, the LR party assured the government of its "text-by-text support" in Parliament, which amounts to non-censorship.

A possible new dissolution of the Assembly by Mr. Macron, who has not publicly ruled out this option, could benefit the RN according to the polls, which were, however, largely wrong on this matter in 2024.

AFP