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French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu survived two parliamentary confidence votes on Thursday, giving him a fragile reprieve and an opportunity to pass a budget for 2026.
Lecornu, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, made it through thanks to the abstention of French Socialists and centre-right lawmakers in France’s fractured parliament.
In the tightest of the two votes, tabled by the far left and the far right respectively, 271 lawmakers of the 577 members of the National Assembly voted to topple him — just 18 votes short of the required threshold.
France has been mired in political turmoil for the past two weeks, during which Lecornu resigned, was reappointed and eventually reneged on one of Macron’s flagship reforms, an overhaul of the pensions system, to keep his government alive.
Lawmakers have already felled two prime ministers in no-confidence motions since last year, following a snap election last summer that splintered the National Assembly and left Macron’s centrist bloc far from a majority.
Freezing the gradual increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 had been a key demand of the centre left in exchange for support for Lecornu’s bid to pursue budget talks and tackle a gaping deficit.
The deeply unpopular reform will now be suspended until after a presidential election scheduled for 2027, in a move that had seemed unthinkable only weeks ago as Macron’s camp battled to protect his legacy.
As a result of this concession, only a handful of socialist deputies voted against the government — not enough to topple Lecornu.
Ahead of the vote, Lecornu pleaded with opposition parties on Thursday to allow his government to pass a budget to bring the deficit to below 5 per cent next year, from 5.4 per cent in 2025.
He said his proposed €30bn package of tax rises and spending cuts was open to debate, and urged lawmakers to negotiate.
“The presidential election will come, you’ll have a chance to campaign, but for now, don’t take the budget hostage,” Lecornu told parliament before the vote.
The prospect of the government surviving the no-confidence vote and passing a budget prompted a rally in French assets this week. France’s 10-year borrowing costs dipped below 3.35 per cent this week for the first time since mid-August.
The reprieve may be temporary, however. Marine Le Pen’s far right is clamouring for repeat legislative elections, while the far left wants Macron to resign.
The Socialist party has not entered any form of long-term pact to support Lecornu, and the conservative Les Républicains is fractured within its own ranks, with many of its lawmakers outraged at the pensions volte-face.
Le Pen said the government would survive “for a few more weeks”, but warned: “This pathetic spectacle is poisonous for our democracy.”
Additional reporting by Ian Smith in London
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