French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu as the new prime minister, following the resignation of François Bayrou. The decision comes just one day after Bayrou’s government lost a key confidence vote in parliament, sparked by fierce opposition to Bayrou’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Lecornu, 39, a close ally of Macron, becomes the seventh prime minister of the president’s mandate. The Élysée Palace said Lecornu has been tasked with consulting political forces in parliament to secure support for the 2026 budget and stabilize the government. The formal handover of power is scheduled for Wednesday at midday.
The new PM had reportedly bragged about his close relationship with Rassemblement National—rumors Marine Le Pen immediately quashed on Tuesday night in a post on X:
“The President is firing the last shot of Macronism, holed up with his small circle of loyalists,” she wrote. “After the inevitable legislative elections, the Prime Minister will be called Jordan Bardella.”
And there was no cheering on the Left either, with La France Insoumise’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon calling Lecornu’s appointment a “sad comedy of contempt for parliament” and calling on Macron to resign.
