French president Emmanuel Macron has called for “stability” after a week of government chaos, as his reappointed prime minister seeks to put a deficit-cutting budget before parliament and survive threats of a no-confidence vote.
“At this moment, France is being watched. The message it must give is a message of stability and strength,” Mr Macron said on Monday, following a week of political turmoil that has damaged the country’s international image and dented investor confidence.
After his resignation and reappointment last week, prime minister Sébastien Lecornu has named a new government with technocratic figures in key posts, and without some political heavyweights, such as conservative interior minister Bruno Retailleau and former prime ministers Elisabeth Borne and Manuel Valls.
After Mr Lecornu’s reappointment on Friday evening, France’s Cac 40 stock index rose 0.5 per cent by noon on Monday. The country’s 10-year borrowing costs – which rose after Lecornu’s resignation but had steadied by the end of the week – were flat at 3.48 per cent.
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But the prime minister’s position remains under threat. He is set to outline his general policy in a speech to parliament on Tuesday and will have to make concessions to various factions to secure their support for next year’s budget.
Opposition politicians on both ends of the spectrum have already put forward no-confidence motions aimed at toppling Mr Lecornu’s government. Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National, the largest single party in parliament, has repeatedly called for fresh legislative elections in which it is expected to perform well.
Mr Lecornu is seeking to deliver a budget for 2026 by the end of the year that will reduce France’s deficit from 5.4 per cent of GDP this year to 5 per cent. It is already more modest in terms of deficit cuts compared with the proposals made by his predecessor Francois Bayrou, who stepped down last month after failing to garner support for his plans.
Mr Lecornu, who is also the former defence minister, said on Monday that Mr Macron’s pledges this summer for an additional defence spending boost of €3.5 billion in 2026 were “indispensable”, in a commitment that will weigh further on the French budget.
Placating the left-wing Socialist Party will be crucial for Mr Lecornu’s survival, as it is a key swing block that could topple him in a no-confidence vote. The left is demanding a suspension of Mr Macron’s flagship reforms to raise the retirement age to 64, as well as an increase in taxation for the very wealthy.
But revisiting the pensions overhaul – which was raised by Macron allies last week – risks alienating some of Mr Lecornu’s centrist and conservative support.
Speaking from Egypt where he was attending the peace summit for Gaza, Mr Macron appealed for calm back home, saying: “The duty of everyone is to work for stability; it’s not to gamble on instability.”
He blamed the “political forces that have decided to vote down” or destabilise his prime ministers, describing them as “the only ones responsible for this disorder”.
But the domestic turmoil is one largely of Mr Macron’s own making, after his unexpected decision last year to call a snap parliamentary election in a bid to stave off the rise of Ms Le Pen’s party. It resulted in a hung parliament and three prime ministers surviving only for a few months – a political volatility that has not occurred since the late 1950s. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
