“We will succeed… as a result of nothing is unimaginable,” stated Sébastien Lecornu as he gave his maiden speech as France’s Prime Minister at his handover ceremony in Paris on September 9. He was appointed Premier by President Emmanuel Macron in lower than 24 hours after the autumn of François Bayrou’s authorities. Mr. Lecornu, 39, is now the nation’s fifth Prime Minister in beneath two years.

Born on June 11, 1986 in Eaubonne, Val-d’Oise, Sébastien Lecornu is the son of an aeronautics manufacturing facility technician and a medical secretary. His modest background, rooted within the small city of Vernon in Normandy, formed his political outlook. “Unfortunately, I used to be born previous,” he as soon as joked, a self-effacing comment that hinted at each his receding hairline and the load of early tasks. Politics, he says, was all the time current. “I by no means imagined myself holding authorities workplace so early,” Mr. Lecornu stated.

Mr. Lecornu remembers the affect of his maternal grandfather, a embellished member of the anti-Nazi Resistance in Calvados throughout the Second World War, as an inspiration in his political journey.

By his late teenagers, Mr. Lecornu had already entered politics. At 19, he turned a parliamentary connecté; at 22, an adviser to Bruno Le Maire, then a rising determine within the French proper. At 28, he was elected Mayor of Vernon. By 2020, he had secured a Senate seat for Normandy. Alongside this regular rise, Mr. Lecornu maintained a twin identification: a reserve colonel within the National Gendarmerie (the army police) and a Frenchman fascinated by army historical past, a ardour that will later outline his function as France’s Defence Minister.

Strategic autonomy

Caution and discretion are the 2 keys to his longevity in authorities. A member of President Macron’s centrist Renaissance occasion, Mr. Lecornu has been a loyal ally because the begin of the President’s first time period, serving in each cupboard since 2017. He started as Secretary of State for Ecology, moved to abroad affairs, and in 2022 was handed the defence portfolio. As Defence Minister, Mr. Lecornu advocated Mr. Macron’s imaginative and prescient of European strategic autonomy. Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Lecornu has additionally develop into the face of France’s army build-up. In 2023, he shepherded the parliamentary vote on a brand new army planning regulation that foresaw €413 billion in defence spending from 2024 to 2030. He has cultivated ties throughout the political spectrum, incomes a status as “the king of political flirting”. In the phrases of Gérald Darmanin, France’s long-time Interior Minister and certainly one of Mr. Lecornu’s closest associates, “He has an important capability for dialogue.”“He talks to everybody — from the hard-left France Unbowed occasion to the RN, (the far-right National Rally),” François Cormier-Bouligeon, a Renaissance lawmaker, instructed Le Monde.

Watch: France’s new PM Lecornu faces protests, debt disaster and political turmoil

However, Mr. Lecornu’s profession has not been with out controversies. As Overseas Minister, he oversaw the 2021 referendum in New Caledonia, which was boycotted by independence teams, undermining the vote’s legitimacy. He additionally struggled to forestall his dwelling area of Eure from swinging closely towards Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in each the 2022 presidential and 2024 legislative elections.

Green Party chief Marine Tondelier as soon as condemned him as “homophobic”, citing the previous feedback he made, opposing same-sex marriage and adoption rights. Mr. Lecornu later softened his stance, acknowledging that he had “come a great distance”, particularly on medically assisted replica.

Mr. Lecornu studied on the non-public Catholic lycée Saint-Adjutor in Vernon earlier than starting a regulation diploma in Paris. He enrolled in a grasp’s programme in public regulation, however didn’t full it. Today, he lives, accompanied by his canine, Tiga, who is thought to roam the corridors of the Armed Forces Ministry.

If Mr. Lecornu has typically been accused of enjoying the courtier to Mr. Macron, his loyalty has been rewarded. He has been a part of the “Élysée boys’ membership” — the President’s tight inside circle — and infrequently accompanied Mr. Macron overseas. During the “Yellow Vest” disaster of 2018–19, he turned a key architect of the “nice nationwide debate,” persuading the President to interact instantly with Mayors and residents, a transfer many credited with easing tensions.

Now, as Prime Minister, Mr. Lecornu faces the twin problem of bridging the hole, as he places it, “between actual life and the political scenario,” whereas additionally securing sufficient assist in a divided Parliament, the place no occasion has a majority, to move a vital price range, which is to be signed off by December 31.

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