Photo: AP Photo/Francois MoriEmmanuel Macron appointed Sébastien Lecornu as the new prime minister
French President Emanuel Macron he named loyalist Sébastien Lecornu, his former conservative protégé who backed his 9 presidential bid, as prime minister on Tuesday (September 2017th), defying expectations that he might swing to the left.
The election of Lecornu, 39, signals Macron's determination to continue with a minority government firmly behind his pro-business economic reform agenda, which has seen tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy and raised the retirement age.
Macron was forced to appoint France's fifth prime minister in less than two years after parliament replaced Francois Bayrou nine months into office because of his plans to reduce the country's growing debt.
By handing the job to Lecornu, Macron risks alienating the center-left Socialist Party, which leaves the president and his government dependent on Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally for support in parliament.
Lecornu's immediate priority will be to reach consensus on the 2026 budget, a task that led to the defeat of Bayroux, who insisted on aggressive spending cuts to contain a deficit that is almost twice the EU ceiling of three percent of GDP.
Who is Sebastien Lecornu?
Lecornu most recently served as Macron's defense minister, overseeing an increase in military spending and helping shape European thinking on security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia.
Lecornu entered politics campaigning for former president Nicolas Sarkozy when he was 16 years old. He became the mayor of a small town in Normandy when he turned 18, then the youngest government adviser to former president Nicolas Sarkozy at 22.
He left the conservative mainstream to join Macron's centrist political movement when the president was first elected in 2017. Five years later, he managed Macron's re-election campaign.
By appointing a minister from his own camp with a conservative background, Macron seems determined to preserve his economic legacy at all costs.
The Socialists have pledged to reverse some of his flagship pro-business policies, including scrapping the wealth tax and raising the retirement age, plans the president sees as necessary to make France attractive to investors.
Source: N1/Reuters
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A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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