France’s prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, hung on to power last Thursday after a no-confidence motion against his government failed by just eighteen votes. A majority of Parti Socialiste lawmakers, in theory in the opposition, withheld their votes from the motion, ensuring Lecornu’s survival. Why? Because, they say, Lecornu has agreed to retreat on President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.
For Lecornu, it was a welcome stay of execution. His first government collapsed almost immediately on Monday, October 6. On Friday that same week, Macron reappointed Lecornu, giving him forty-eight hours to negotiate a deal to keep his government alive long enough to pass an austerity budget by the end of 2025.
According to Le Parisien, before reappointing his prime minister, Macron called Parti Socialiste leader Olivier Faure to lock down a guarantee that it wouldn’t topple him. Faure confirmed that the phone call took place — but his party denied any binding deal had been made.
The Parti Socialiste made its decision against censuring Lecornu in response to his opening policy speech to the National Assembly. In it, Lecornu announced a temporary freeze on the retirement-age rise, widely characterized as a “suspension” of the reform. He also ruled out using article 49.3 of the constitution — a tool extensively used by Macron’s prime ministers to pass legislation, including the pension reform, without a vote by MPs.
The result was that the National Assembly narrowly rejected the radical-left France Insoumise’s censure motion, which was backed by the other left-wing parties as well as the far-right Rassemblement National. Decisively, just seven of the Parti Socialiste’s sixty-nine MPs broke party discipline to vote against the…
Auteur: Marlon Ettinger
