French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu today survived two separate no-confidence votes in the French National Assembly.
He clung to power after bowing to Socialists’ political pressure and freezing French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.
Just days after unveiling his reshuffled cabinet, the 39-year-old PM faced back-to-back motions of censure, launched by the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) and another by Marine Le Pen’s party National Rally (RN).
Both failed to reach the 289 votes required to bring down his government.
The left-wing motion, championed by LFI President Mathilde Panot, secured 271 votes, just 18 short of the threshold, after the Socialist Party refused to back it.
The RN’s motion earned only 144 votes, mostly from its own ranks and the small Union of the Right for the Republic group.
Following the result, Panot vowed her party would now target Macron directly and announced it will file yet another impeachment process.
“The Prime Minister and Macron are on borrowed time,” she declared.
“Sooner rather than later, the President will have to go. We will table a new motion of no confidence.”
Lecornu’s decision on October 14 to suspend the unpopular 2023 pension reform, which would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, was a last-minute concession aimed at appeasing the Socialist bloc and avoiding the collapse of his government.
LFI deputy Clémence Guette warned that the government’s survival would come at a cost.
“This will generate immense anger in the country,” she said.
RN de facto leader Le Pen accused lawmakers of “granting Lecornu a reprieve out of terror of elections”.
Jordan Bardella, the party’s President, accused establishment MPs of “saving their seats at the expense of the national interest”.
“The great absentees from these political manoeuvres are the French people,” Bardella said.
“They are preparing to endure the social and fiscal slaughter of a punitive budget,” he added.
Lecornu’s tenure at the PM office has already been marked by chaos.
After resigning on October 6 amid criticism of his initial cabinet line-up, he was reappointed by Macron days later, unveiling a newer team tasked with pushing through an austerity budget by year’s end.
