The new government of French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu was announced on Sunday evening, seven days after his resignation over the collapse of his first government in a bitter split between Emmanuel Macron’s centre-right camp and the conservative Les Républicains party, which had until then propped up the three successive minority governments in place since September 2024.
The deepening political crisis in France began after Macron called snap parliamentary elections in the summer of 2024, which returned a hung parliament, when the far-right Rassemblement National became the largest single party within the National Assembly, and when the leftwing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance garnered the largest number of seats. Macron’s centre-right Renaissance party came well behind both.
Despite the results, Macron, who as French president has the unique power to name the prime minister, has appointed governments with the aim that they largely apply his political policies, infuriating the Left, which claims its share of the vote last year gives it the legitimacy to govern. Meanwhile, the far-right, which appears very likely to make further gains in the event of fresh elections, have called for parliament to be dissolved, while the radical-left La France Insoumise party demands that Macron stands down. That call has now been joined by Édouard Philippe, Macron's first prime minister, now leader of the centre-right Horizons party, who argues for the French president's resignation as soon as the 2026 budget is approved.
The first two of Macron's minority governments – led by conservative veteran Michel Barnier between September and December 2024, and succeeded by that of the centre-right veteran François Bayrou until September this year – were overturned by votes of no confidence in parliament.
Last week Macron accepted Lecornu’s resignation, which followed the conservatives' refusal to join his government, but immediately gave him the task of seeking out potential members of yet a new government.
After arriving at the Élysée Palace on Sunday evening to finalise discussions with Macron on the new appointees, it was announced that Lecornu had accepted his reappointment as prime minister. In a post late on Sunday on social media outlet X, Lecornu, 39, said he had accepted out of a sense of “duty”, and has made clear that he will again resign if his government – the fourth in France since the snap parliamentary elections last year – is unable to make headway. Crucially, draft legislation to decide the 2026 budget is already delayed, opening up the possibility of a backstop budget based on that for 2025.
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Lecornu is due to make a general policy speech in parliament on Tuesday, when the radical-left and the far-right have threatened to table a vote of no-confidence. The prime minister’s future hangs on a decision by the Parti Socialiste whether or not it will join a vote against his government, which it has said it will unless Macron’s pension rights reform, now law, is withdrawn.
Below is an outline of who’s who in Lecornu’s government announced on October 12th. Far from being what the Élysée earlier announced as a “rupture” with the past that included “surprises”, it is largely composed of Macron loyalists and previous members of government.
Gérald Darmanin, 43, a former conservative who jumped ship to join Macron’s camp in 2017, entering government as junior minister for public accounts before becoming a high-profile, hardline interior minister (2020-2024), was reappointed as justice minister, a post he had held since December 2024.
Rachida Dati, who in 2007 became Nicolas Sarkozy’s first justice minister, and who was on Sunday expelled from the conservative Les Républicains party for disobeying its leadership’s decision to withdraw from government, was reappointed as culture minister. Dati, 59, a cleaving figure who will stand trial on corruption charges (which she denies) late next year, is mayor of the 7th arrondissement (district) of Paris and will stand as a candidate to become overall mayor of the French capital in elections next year. Lecornu has said she must stand down from government when campaigning for the mayorship begins.
Jean-Noël Barrot, 42, from the centre-right MoDem party was reappointed as foreign affairs minister, while Macron loyalist Amélie de Montchalin, 40, is now junior minister for public accounts. Aurore Bergé, 38, is gender equality minister, Benjamin Haddad is junior minister for European affairs (both he and Bergé are former conservatives who joined macron's movement in 2017), and the conservative Philippe Tabarot, 54, returns as transport minister, placing him in conflict with his party.
Several other ministers appointed on Sunday who had already been nominated in Lecornu’s first government on October 5th (which collapsed after just 14 hours) include Roland Lescure, 58, (reappointed economy and finance minister) and Mathieu Lefèvre, 38, (promoted to the post of minister for ecological transition), both Macron loyalists, Naïma Moutchou, 44 (from the centre-right Horizons party, who now replaces former socialist prime minister Manuel Valls as minister for French overseas territories), and Marina Ferrari, 52 (from the centre-right MoDem party, appointed minister for sport and youth).
Former conservative Catherine Vautrin, 65, who joined Macron’s Renaissance party in 2024, and who first entered government under the presidency of Jacques Chirac in 2004, is the new armed forces minister after less than ten months as labour and health minister.
Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez, 61, is the new interior minister, replacing Bruno Retailleau, the conservative Les Républicains party chairman and presidential hopeful. Retailleau prompted the collapse of Lecornu’s first government, announced on October 5th, when he resigned in anger over not having been informed of Lecornu’s inclusion of former economy minister Bruno Le Maire in his government. Le Maire, a former conservative, was Macron’s economy minister from 2017 to 2024. Nunez is a former director-general for domestic security, and served for two years as an anti-terrorism national coordinator.
Centre-right UDI party veteran Françoise Gatel, 72, has become regional planning and decentralisation minister, and Philippe Baptiste, 53, an engineer with no declared party affiliation, is reappointed as junior minister for higher education and research.
Charlotte Parmentier-Lecocq, 48, who last year joined the centre-right Horizons party after eight years as a devout Macronist, retains her post as minister for the handicapped, which she was first appointed to in September 2024 under Michel Barnier’s government. Maud Bregeon, 34, is the new government spokesperson, a post she also occupied under Barnier’s government.
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- This article is partly based on a report originally published in French, available here.
English version by Graham Tearse