France’s outgoing Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, on Wednesday made a last-ditch bid to unite rival parties and pull his collapsed government out of political deadlock – hoping to agree on a budget and head off the threat of a snap election.
Speaking outside Matignon, the prime minister’s office, shortly before he began a day of talks with rival parties, Lecornu said the possibility of a dissolution of parliament was “more remote” because parties across the spectrum had shown “a desire to have a budget for France before 31 December”.
President Emmanuel Macron, facing the worst domestic political crisis of his presidency, asked Lecornu to stay on as caretaker and try to forge a compromise that could stabilise the government and allow a 2025 budget to pass. Lecornu is expected to report back to Macron later on Wednesday.
He also said that all the parties he consulted shared a target of keeping France’s deficit “below 5 percent” in 2026, with a goal between 4.7 and 5 percent.
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Race to a budget
After his morning remarks, Lecornu began meetings with left-wing leaders including the Socialists, Greens and Communists, seeking enough support – or at least enough abstentions – to get a budget through parliament by the end of the year.
Socialist leader Olivier Faure told France 2 television the time had come to "move to the left” after three centre-right prime ministers had failed to stabilise the country.
He welcomed former prime minister Élisabeth Borne’s statement that she would accept suspending the deeply unpopular 2023 pension reform she steered through parliament.
Borne, now caretaker education minister, told Le Parisien that suspending the reform should be considered “if it is the condition for the stability of the country”. The reform, which raised the retirement age, remains a flashpoint in the political crisis.
Acting finance minister Roland Lescure warned on France Inter radio that “modifying the pension reform will cost hundreds of millions in 2026, and billions in 2027”.
The Socialist Party has indicated it could accept a suspension rather than a full repeal.
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Divided opposition
Lecornu’s effort has exposed deep splits among opposition parties.
While some on the centre-left signalled they could back a temporary suspension of the contested pension reform in exchange for a deal, hard-left leaders said they would reject any arrangement seen as prolonging Macron’s policies.
Parliament’s speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet warned that dissolving the National Assembly for a fresh election “must not happen because it would be costly and bring our country to a halt”.
Public money gesture
Seeking to show restraint on public money, Lecornu said on Wednesday that the ministers appointed on Sunday, who served only a few hours before his resignation, would not receive the standard three-month severance payments.
“We cannot talk about savings without applying rules of rigour and example,” he said.
Lecornu’s resignation on Monday unsettled investors, sending the Paris stock market lower. But he argued that the growing willingness among rival parties to reach a budget compromise reduces the risk of prolonged paralysis.
Lecornu is due to brief Macron on Wednesday evening and later present the outcome of the talks on national television.
