The French presidency has announced the second government led by French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who includes personalities with a technical profilebut also to ministers and members of Lecornu’s own cabinet presented a week ago and that .
Among the main portfolios are the Paris Police Prefect, Laurent Núñez, appointed Minister of the Interior; and as head of Defense, Catherine Vautrin (until now Minister of Labor). Meanwhile, the Macronist Roland Lescure repeats, in Economy and with the arduous task of working on the 2026 Budgetand the centrist Jean-Noël Barrot, in Foreign Affairs.
“It’s about a mission government so that France has a budget before the end of the year. I thank the women and men who commit to this government in complete freedom and without personal or partisan interests,” Lecornu said in X after meeting almost three hours with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in charge of validating his prime minister’s proposals.
In a statement, the Elysée announced a government of 34 ministers and secretaries of State – two members less than the administration of François Bayrou (December 2024-September 2025) – with several names little known to the general public, but with solid careers professionals.
An example of this is the Labor portfolio, headed by the until now president of the state railway group SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou, who will have to deal with a possible suspension of the 2023 pension reformas the socialists ask in exchange for not overthrowing the government in a motion in the National Assembly.
In Education, the ministry with the largest budget allocation falls to the senior official Édouard Geffray and that of Ecological Transition to Monique Barbut, former president of the NGO WWF-France. Heavyweights of Macronism remain, such as the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, and other well-known faces such as Rachida Dati (Culture).
However, the former socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who had served as Overseas Minister in the last year, falls from the list and is replaced by the centrist Naïma Moutchou, in charge of consolidating the historic peace process initiated by Valls in New Caledonia.
