Clock Ticking for Lecornu as Budget Crisis Threatens to Paralyze Government
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, freshly reappointed late on Friday days after resigning, faces an immediate test to deliver a 2026 budget bill by Monday to give it any chance of passing through a divided parliament by year-end.
President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Lecornu as prime minister, just four days after he had resigned from the role, searching for a way out of France’s worst political crisis in decades.
“The Lecornu II government, appointed by Emmanuel Macron who is more isolated and out of touch than ever at the Elysee Palace, is a bad joke, a democratic disgrace and a humiliation for the French people,” National Rally party president Jordan Bardella posted on X.
October 13, therefore, is the hard deadline for Lecornu to present a draft budget bill – first to cabinet, and then on the same day to parliament.
That means, at a minimum, the ministers responsible for finance, budget, and social security must be appointed by then.
Missing the deadline would leave lawmakers without the 70 days the constitution grants to debate and pass the budget before year-end. The Constitutional Court also requires eight days to review the legislation.
Lecornu has not disclosed any details about what is in the draft, but he did say after he resigned that the budget deficit must be reduced to between 4.7% and 5% of economic output next year, a bigger gap than the 4.6% targetted by his predecessor. The deficit is forecast at 5.4% this year.
If Lecornu is brought down by a no-confidence vote, as some opponents are already promising, parliament would need to pass emergency stopgap legislation to authorize spending, taxation, and borrowing from January 1 until a full budget is adopted.
While a stopgap law would avoid a U.S.-style government shutdown, it would impose strict limits on public finances until a new government could pass a full budget next year.
