{"id":133876,"date":"2025-09-10T23:06:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133876\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T23:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:06:13","slug":"new-french-pm-sebastien-lecornu-promises-profound-break-with-past-politics-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133876\/","title":{"rendered":"New French PM S\u00e9bastien Lecornu promises \u2018profound break\u2019 with past politics | France"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new French prime minister, S\u00e9bastien Lecornu<\/a>, has promised a \u201cprofound break\u201d with past politics as he took over from the unpopular centrist Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou, who was ousted this week<\/a> over a proposed budget squeeze.<\/p>\n

Lecornu, 39, who said \u201chumility\u201d was the key approach, now faces the difficult task of gaining enough support from France\u2019s divided parliament to pass a budget if he is to avoid being swiftly ousted in the same way as Bayrou<\/a>, and before him, the rightwing Michel Barnier<\/a>, who only lasted three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will get there \u2026 no path is impossible,\u201d Lecornu said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Lecornu is the third French prime minister in only one year as the country has gone through a period of instability and political crisis<\/a> since the centrist president, Emmanuel Macron, called an inconclusive snap election last year.<\/p>\n

The parliament remains divided between the three blocs: the left, the far right and the centre, with no clear majority. A budget for next year must be agreed within the coming weeks, even though the political parties are at loggerheads.<\/p>\n

\"DemonstratorsDemonstrators scuffle with police amid Block Everything protests across France \u2013 video <\/p>\n

Lecornu, who as defence minister for the past three years was known for his work on increasing French military spending, said: \u201cWe are going to have to change, be more creative and serious in our way of working with the opposition.\u201d He said there must be deep changes to working methods, but also to the substance of politics.<\/p>\n

Lecornu said he would address France \u201cin the coming days\u201d to explain his approach, which he promised would be different from the past. He is expected to take several weeks to form a new government. The new prime minister began meeting party leaders as tens of thousands of protesters held a national day of demonstrations<\/a> on Wednesday, barricading roads and gathering in town centres as 80,000 police were deployed across France.<\/p>\n

Lecornu is seen as representing continuity rather than change. He had a background on the right in Nicolas Sarkozy\u2019s party before joining Macron\u2019s centrists eight years ago. He is seen as one of Macron\u2019s most loyal allies, having been in government since Macron was first elected<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n

Lecornu is so close to Macron that he has been called \u201cMacron\u2019s spiritual son\u201d. Opposition parties, which had wanted a radical change of direction from a new prime minister, warned on Wednesday that they remained highly critical and a wrong step could lead to Lecornu being toppled in a no-confidence vote.<\/p>\n

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Ga\u00ebl Sliman of the pollsters Odoxa told France<\/a> 5 TV that snap polling on Lecornu\u2019s appointment showed he had the lowest ratings of any new prime minister in recent years.<\/p>\n

Boris Vallaud, the head of the Socialist parliament group, said: \u201cHe was part of a government that was toppled this week. You can appreciate our scepticism. What French people are asking for is a change of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leftwing party La France Insoumise announced an immediate no-confidence motion against Lecornu in parliament, but for now without backing from other parties. Lecornu\u2019s challenge is to at least convince a majority of opposition parties to refrain from ousting him in a no-confidence vote.<\/p>\n

Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally party said Lecornu was \u201cin a very precarious position\u201d. He said unless there was proof of a real change in politics, there would be a no-confidence motion and Lecornu would \u201cfall\u201d. Bardella said: \u201cI fear that Macron has once again made a choice of instability.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00e9bastien Chenu, the vice-president of Le Pen\u2019s party, said it would be \u201cvery surprising\u201d if Lecornu, a Macron ally, \u201cbroke with Macron\u2019s politics\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new French prime minister, S\u00e9bastien Lecornu, has promised a \u201cprofound break\u201d with past politics as he took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-133876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}