Stephanie Lecocq / EPA
Sebastien Lecorn
Macron could name a new prime minister by tomorrow, Lecornu announced. “We are no longer strong enough for France to be self-sufficient.”
The resigning French Prime Minister stated that the President Emmanuel Macron could appoint a new head of government “in the next 48 hours“, after two days of intense negotiations to resolve the political impasse in the country.
“I told the President of the Republic that the prospect of dissolution is moving away and that I consider that the situation allows him to appoint a prime minister in the next 48 hours”, he said Sébastien Lecornu, in an interview with France 2 channel, after a meeting with Macron, at the Élysée (French presidency).
During the last 48 hours, Sébastien Lecornu conducted negotiations with “political forces that, deep down, are ready to reach an agreement on a common budget, and also with opposition formations that want this stability, but that impose conditions”, he added.
“For the last 48 hours, I have been trying to keep final negotiations. The French are waiting for the political class to reach an agreement”, he continued.
The resigning Prime Minister, who announced his resignation last Monday after announcing a Government rejected by the opposition, said that the French “demand that the political class change its way of working”.
“My mission is finished”declared Sébastien Lecornu.
Budget project
Sébastien Lecornu also announced that a budget project will be presented on Monday, and that although it is not “perfect, there will be a lot to debate” in the National Assembly.
“All political forces, except Unsubmissive France [LFI, esquerda radical] and the National Union [RN, extrema-direita]I was told that we cannot run the risk of not having a budget approved by December 31st, because the consequences for France and the French would be dramatic”, said Sébastien Lecornu.
LFI leaders Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Mathilde Panot reacted to these statements by demanding Macron’s resignation.
“Sébastien Lecornu said that no issue can be decided before the 2027 presidential elections. Solution? Let’s have the presidential election now. The country has no time to waste“, he wrote on the social network X.
Mathilde Panot, leader of LFI deputies, adding thatand “this repeat comedy has gone on long enough”with the resigning prime minister giving “another 48 hours, that is, he doubled the deadline” to present a solution for the country.
Change president? No
The resigning French Prime Minister considered that “this is not the time to change president”despite the deep political crisis that the country is going through, thus reacting to several calls for Emmanuel Macron to resign.
“We must not make the French believe that it is the President of the Republic who votes on the budget,” declared Sébastien Lecornu, stating that “this presidential institution must be protected and preserved.”
The French head of state, under pressure from all sides, including his supporters, does not plan to speak for now, but will express himself to the French “at the appropriate time”said Lecornu.
“In a representative democracy, when a mandate is given (…) if we start, at the first sign of a storm, to say “we need to leave”, if that applies to today’s President, it will also weigh on future ones and tomorrow on mayors, deputies…”, he considered.
In this sense, he warned that one should not “underestimate the international tension that [Macron] you have to manage”: “We are no longer strong enough for France to be self-sufficient.”
