Outgoing French PM seeks compromise to avert snap elections 

Sébastien Lecornu, France’s caretaker prime minister, says talks with political leaders show a shared willingness to pass a budget before year’s end, reducing the likelihood of snap elections.

“This willingness creates a momentum and a convergence, obviously, which make the possibilities of a dissolution more remote,” he said on Wednesday at Matignon Palace in Paris.

Tribune Online reports Lecornu resigned on Monday after less than a month in office but was given 48 hours by President Emmanuel Macron to secure political backing for a new government. 

He promised to present his findings to Macron later that day.

According to Guardian UK, Macron’s government has struggled to maintain stability since his election in 2022. Last year’s snap legislative elections produced a hung parliament that forced out two prime ministers unable to secure support for budget measures. 

Lecornu became the third to resign after resistance from both allies and opponents.

According to Lecornu, reducing France’s budget deficit—expected to surpass 5.5% of GDP this year, nearly double the EU limit—was “vital, including for France’s image abroad and for our capacity to borrow.”

Lecornu said parties across the spectrum agreed on bringing the deficit below 5% next year. He was due to meet with leftwing groups, including the Socialists, Greens, and Communists, to discuss possible concessions for a stable agreement.

Those discussions will help determine “what concessions [the left] will demand of the other political groups in order to guarantee this stability, and also what concessions – if any – they are prepared to make in order to allow it,” he said.

Lecornu hinted at a compromise on Tuesday, suggesting Macron’s contested pension reform could be “suspended” to address Socialist concerns. But PS leader Olivier Faure said after meeting Lecornu that he had “not received any guarantees” on that point.

If the moderate left joins forces with Macron’s centrists and centre-right lawmakers, a new coalition government could emerge, though it would remain fragile. 

The centre-right has resisted any reversal of pension changes, while the far-right National Rally (RN) and radical left France Unbowed (LFI) have vowed to oppose the government.

“I will block anything that comes from this government,” RN leader Marine Le Pen said. “The joke has gone on long enough.” LFI’s Mathilde Panot also said her group would vote against “any government that persists with Macron’s policies” and would “not participate in saving Emmanuel Macron.”

(The Guardian UK)

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