Political Realist!
Oct 13, 2025
The Financial Times :
French Politics
Emmanuel Macron
Headline: New French cabinet shows Macron is still calling shots
Sub-headline: Unveiled Sunday night, the new government led by reappointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu faces two no-confidence votes this week and must push through a budget before year’s end.
By Mariama Darame Published today at 11:21 am (Paris), updated at 5:48 pm
If further proof were needed that French President Emmanuel Macron retains control over the prime minister’s office, the composition of Sébastien Lecornu’s new cabinet is the ultimate demonstration. After a three-hour meeting at the Elysée on Sunday, October 12, the president and his prime minister unveiled, just before 10 pm and via a statement from the presidency, the 35 ministers who will face, as soon as this week, two votes of no confidence from La France Insoumise (LFI, the radical left) and the Rassemblement National (RN, the far right).
Lecornu presented a revised version of his initial cabinet, which was deemed too Macronist and had led him to resign after just 14 hours, on October 6. This time, he downplayed the political aspect of his lineup, calling it on X “a government with a mission” that transcends “personal and partisan interests” and whose goal is to “give France a budget before the end of the year.”
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“The government’s political base has shrunk further, both on the left and the right. And these waves of poaching and expulsions do not bode well for smooth relations with the parties,” said Harold Huwart, a centrist in the LIOT group.
The survival of Lecornu’s government now depends more than ever on the Socialists’ goodwill, as the rest of the left has vowed to bring it down. The Socialists are demanding an end to the use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the government to pass legislation without a vote; measures to lower the cost of living; and the “immediate and complete” suspension of the contested 2023 pension reform. These demands must be included in the prime minister’s government policy statement on Tuesday at 3 pm if the Socialists are to spare the government, the party said.
Lecornu has scheduled a meeting with his ministers on Monday afternoon. He will lay out the marching orders ahead of the presentation of the budget bill at the Council of Ministers on Tuesday morning, after Macron returns from a diplomatic trip to Egypt.
Lecornu’s office has instructed outgoing and incoming ministers to keep the traditional handover ceremonies brief and away from the press. His new government has all the hallmarks of a non-event, even for its main players.
Editor: Macron is addicted to his meeting with various ‘leaders’ as a sign of his importance! Mariama Darame and Le Monde play a shabby Political Game!
Headline: Macron is risking a regime crisis
Sub-headline: After the president refused to acknowledge the results of the 2024 legislative elections that his camp lost, his insistence on retaining control has already led two prime ministers to fail in less than 12 months.
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Macron refuses to contradict himself or erase part of his record. Yet his most loyal supporters have understood that the Elysée needed to take a step back. Former minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called for the new prime minister to be someone “not from the Macronist camp,” and Gabriel Attal, one of Macron’s former prime ministers, urged the Elysée not to “persist in trying to control everything.” To no avail.
Has Macron realized that he must step back from his own second term, at least regarding domestic policy, to salvage what remains? After refusing to acknowledge the results of the 2024 legislative elections, his insistence on retaining control has already caused two prime ministers to fail in less than 12 months. Another successful no-confidence motion the week of October 13 would almost certainly force him to call snap elections that would solve nothing and plunge all parties of government into an increasingly strange defeat.
Editor: Even Le Monde’s Editorialist finds Macron’s flacid politicking patently absurd!
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