PARIS, Oct 6, 2025 (BSS/AFP) – Outgoing French premier Sebastien Lecornu is
a loyal ally of President Emmanuel Macron whose reputation as a canny
negotiator did not help him survive even a month in office.
His resignation after just 27 days left Lecornu with the unwanted record of
the shortest time in office of any prime minister since France’s Fifth
Republic was set up in 1958.
Still just 39, Lecornu had been one of the few faces of continuity in the
French cabinet at a time of multiple changes of government, serving for more
than three years as defence minister before Macron named him premier on
September 9.
From day one, he faced an uphill struggle to survive. Both his predecessors
were ousted by a parliament where pro-Macron forces are in the minority after
elections in 2024 left the chamber deadlocked.
During just over three weeks in office, the French public barely heard him
speak while he granted few interviews. He broke records with the length of
time it took him to name his cabinet, with the line-up only announced Sunday
evening.
But the hours of closed-door talks and discretion came to nought on Monday
when Lecornu threw in the towel after his cabinet nominations infuriated the
right.
“The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry out my function as prime
minister,” Lecornu said.
In a swipe at the right, he denounced “partisan appetites” and added: “One
must always put country before party”.
His low profile and penchant for working behind the scenes caused irritation
among some, although there was acknowledgement that he held the poorest of
hands with a minority government facing hostility from the left and right.
“He is the Paganini of negotiation,” said a high-ranking figure in the pro-
Macron forces referring, to the 19th-century Italian virtuoso.
The ultimate Macron loyalist, Lecornu had held his job as defence minister
throughout almost all Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, successfully expanding
the defence budget, while carefully remaining in the shadows with infrequent
media appearances.
One of his key assets for Macron was that he is not what is known in France
as “presidentiable”, namely someone who harbours ambitions of winning the
Elysee Palace for themselves.
Lecornu is “a loyal soldier who doesn’t have too much charisma or
presidential potential”, one ministerial adviser told AFP on condition of
anonymity.
A career politician, Lecornu started out as a parliamentary assistant aged
just 19. He had held ministerial posts ever since Macron came to power in
2017 and was promoted to defence minister in May 2022.
Interested in politics from an early age, Lecornu’s career set records for
hitting milestones at an early age, initially with the conservative UMP party
of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
He became France’s youngest-ever ministerial adviser in 2008, joining Bruno
Le Maire — later Macron’s long-serving finance minister — on the Europe
brief.
Ironically, the appointment of his former mentor Le Maire as defence minister
sparked the wave of anger from the right that precipitated his downfall, with
“BLM” seen as the incarnation of Macron’s budgetary policies.
A graduate in public law rather than the elite administration or business
institutions that traditionally shape top French leaders, Lecornu has made
sure to keep up his local roots.
In 2015, he was the youngest-ever president of a French department, Eure in
Normandy, after serving as mayor of his hometown Vernon.
He reached ministerial rank at 31, covering portfolios including the
environment and overseas territories before landing at defence.
On taking office as premier, he promised “breaks” with the past and to be
“more creative”, vows he appeared unable to keep.
But even his opponents applauded the manner in which he had given way, with
Socialist leader Olivier Faure saying he had resigned with “dignity and
honour”.
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