The possible appointment of Sébastien Lecornu to Matignon is gaining weight this Friday morning. The name of the future Prime Minister could be revealed at the very end of the morning.
A replacement must be found for Michel Barnier and, as is often the case, Sébastien Lecornu appears as a contender for Matignon. His name came up insistently on television sets this Friday morning, particularly after François Bayrou’s 1h45 interview with Macron, which was not followed by any official communication from the Elysée. Has the mayor of Pau been rejected? Impossible to say for the moment, however, the rumor leading to the resigning Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu is starting to gain momentum. France Info and BFMTV indicate in particular that his name would still be circulating to enter Matignon. At the same time, BFMTV clarified this Friday morning “that no meeting with the president is on his agenda, neither this morning nor this afternoon”.
Until Thursday, he was the favorite of the President of the Republic who is looking for a new Prime Minister. But voices from the central bloc were raised against an appointment of the Minister of the Armed Forces to Matignon. Macronists, Democrats and Philippists would have considered the pretender as “a blocking element if the objective [du futur gouvernement] was to no longer depend on Marine Le Pen”, reports BFMTV. The same people feared that Sébastien Lecornu would lead negotiations that were too uninhibited with the National Rally. This was due to the minister’s previous exchanges with leading figures of the far right, notably during a dinner at Thierry Solère’s house revealed last summer by Libération The minister who has participated in all governments since the first election of the head of state in 2017 recalled this Thursday 5. December that “it is the President of the Republic who appoints” the Prime Minister.
As a reminder, Sébastien Lecornu was a parliamentary assistant at 19, mayor of Vernon at 27, president of the department of Eure at 28 and propelled into government at 31. He plays his part discreetly and has climbed the government ladder from Secretary of State for Ecological Transition in 2017 to Minister of the Armed Forces in 2022. In the meantime, he was appointed Minister Delegate for Territorial Cohesion and Minister of Overseas.
(Overly) cordial relations with the RN?
In addition to his profile which reflects a certain knowledge of institutions, it is the relationships that Sébastien Lecornu maintains with the different political forces which could help him gain access to Matignon. But Emmanuel Macron should rather move towards a “government of general interest representing all the political forces which can participate in it or, at the very least, which undertake not to censor it”, favoring the option of a coalition or a non-censorship pact between the right, the central bloc and the left which could be limited to the PS.
Sébastien Lecornu, who joined the Macronist party in 2017, initially came from the right of the UMP and LR. He kept good relations with certain heavyweights of the latter, but also fell out with others like Laurent Wauquiez who heads the group of right-wing deputies reports BFMTV. If he seems able to avoid automatic censorship of the RN since he has already led fruitful negotiations with the party, such as on the military programming law, and since he has respectful relations with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella , this might not be enough to tick all the boxes requested by the president for his future Prime Minister.
Indeed, it is with the left that the Minister of the Armed Forces could have more difficulty negotiating. However, Sébastien Lecornu reached out to the PS this Thursday, December 5 on RTL. “I call for everything to be done […] to allow the PS to get out of the path it has taken in recent weeks and months,” he declared in reference to the rapprochement of the left party with LFI. “We will have to discuss and demonstrate compromise”, he added. Will the PS be receptive to his words? Dialogue does not, however, seem possible between Sébastien Lecornu and LFI, neither in one direction nor the other. The party coordinator rebellious, Manuel Bompard also assured that “if [le ministre] was appointed as Prime Minister, we would seek to censor him” on the same media.
Its proximity to Macron: a brake for Matignon
If Sébastien Lecornu ticks certain boxes, he could suffer from another detail: his proximity to Emmanuel Macron. The man is often alongside the Head of State, even in recent days he accompanied the President on his trip to Saudi Arabia. The opportunity to discuss a possible nomination? The subject was not discussed, indicated the possible suitor to Matignon.
The appointment of Sébastien Lecornu, an early Macronist, would not allow the change in political line expected since the 2024 legislative elections. The ballot organized after the dissolution was won by the left alliance, but this is the defeat of the Macronist camp and the emergence of a tripartite Assembly in which a majority is struggling to form which really marked these elections. So appointing a personality from the disavowed presidential party could be seen as a new negation of the results of the legislative elections after the appointment of Michel Barnier, whose political family only has 45 deputies.