New French Government Faces Two Motions of No-Confidence on Day One

The composition of the new French government, led by Sébastien Lecornu, was announced on the evening of Sunday, October 12th. It features many new faces—in an attempt to send a signal of renewal to the French people after the fiasco of the previous cabinet. But this exercise is unlikely to save Lecornu: the Right and the Left are already gearing up to bring down the government at the first opportunity.

The reappointment of Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister candidate on Friday, October 10th did not generate the slightest enthusiasm in France. After swearing blind that he would not return to office, Lecornu finally gave in to Emmanuel Macron, “out of duty,” as he put it.

It took him a week to put together a new team, after the scandal triggered by the composition of the previous team—a pale imitation of François Bayrou’s government, giving the impression that the executive was deaf to the French people’s deep discontent with the ruling political class.

The government that is about to take office has 34 ministers. Heavyweights from previous teams are keeping their posts: Gérald Darmanin at Justice, Jean-Noël Barrot at Foreign Affairs. But there are also figures unknown to the French public who are making their debut. 

In the press and on social media, the line-up is ruthlessly critiqued. “A defence minister who knows nothing about the army, an overseas minister who knows nothing about overseas territories, a pro-euthanasia health minister, an anti-nuclear ecology minister,” sums up lawyer and polemicist Henri de Beauregard sarcastically. It is not by chance therefore that Lecornu requested that the handover ceremonies in the ministries be as discreet as possible, without an audience or the press.

During the last stages of the crisis that preceded the appointment of the new ministers, the centre-right Les Républicains party managed to completely discredit itself. The party’s president, former minister of interior Bruno Retailleau was partly responsible for Sébastien Lecornu’s resignation last Monday, withdrawing his support after violently criticising the insufficient number of members of his party in the team appointed on the evening of Sunday, October 5th. 

This time, the new team includes six members of Les Républicains (LR) instead of three, including Rachida Dati, who retains the Ministry of Culture, and Annie Genevard, who takes over the Ministry of Agriculture. Incidentally, she was one of the most active in securing Éric Ciotti’s ouster from LR in the summer of 2024 due to his alliance with the RN. She has thus been well rewarded.

Upon the announcement of their appointment, all six were expelled from the party, proving the nervousness of the LR president, now himself deprived of a ministerial post and displaying a ‘love you, hate you’ relationship with Macronism. In a matter of days, he managed to squander the capital of sympathy he had with part of the French right.

The new team, put together by Macron and Lecornu after tedious and bitter discussions, has one mission: to come up with a budget for France as soon as possible. But this last-chance government is stillborn. Motions of no confidence aimed at bringing it down are currently being worked on. One will come from the Left, put forward by La France Insoumise, the other from the Rassemblement National, which announced several days ago that it no longer wanted to waste time.

The President of the Republic will dissolve parliament; this is inevitable. While it is impossible to predict the outcome of the next elections, it is almost certain that they will result in a significant setback for the presidential camp. Many MPs will lose their seats. By appointing a new team under Lecornu’s leadership, Macron wants to send a message to the MPs of his political family that he has done everything in his power to prevent their electoral demise. It is not certain that they will forgive him.