{"id":482643,"date":"2025-10-08T09:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482643\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:57:16","slug":"outgoing-french-pm-raises-hope-of-a-deal-to-stave-off-snap-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482643\/","title":{"rendered":"Outgoing French PM raises hope of a deal to stave off snap elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The prospect of snap parliamentary elections in France appears to have receded as S\u00e9bastien Lecornu, the outgoing prime minister, expressed optimism that a deal could be struck to end the immediate political crisis.<\/p>\n

After meeting centrist and conservative leaders in Paris, Lecornu said: \u201cI have good reason to tell you that among the good news \u2026 there is a willingness to have a budget for France before December 31.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in the courtyard of the H\u00f4tel Matignon, the prime minister\u2019s official residence on the Left Bank, he added: \u201cThis desire creates a movement and a convergence, obviously, which removes the prospects of dissolution [of the National Assembly to hold parliamentary elections].\u201d<\/p>\n

Lecornu said that he would continue meetings with left-wing parties and would present his findings to President Macron<\/a> on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Lecornu is to hold talks with leaders of the centre-left Socialist Party, the Greens and the Communists, but not with the radical left-wing France Unbowed party, which is led by Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon and wants to force Macron out of office.<\/p>\n

Lecornu said that he would explore what concessions the other parties would be prepared to offer to restore political stability. However, he appeared to rule out scrapping Macron\u2019s fiercely contested pension reforms, which have raised the statutory retirement age to 64, although this has been a key demand of the Socialists and other left-wing groups. The possibility of ditching the policy to placate the opposition had been raised by \u00c9lisabeth Borne, the education minister and a former prime minister from Macron\u2019s party, who used to be associated with the Socialists.<\/p>\n

\"French<\/p>\n

President Macron has hinted he may call elections or resign if no deal can be reached<\/p>\n

NICOLAS TUCAT\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Lecornu, Macron\u2019s fifth prime minister in two years, announced his resignation on Monday only 14 hours after appointing his cabinet, which had attracted widespread criticism. He then agreed to stay on until Wednesday at Macron\u2019s request to make a last-ditch attempt to restore stability.<\/p>\n

In an apparent effort to calm rising public anger with the political class, Lecornu said his outgoing ministers would not benefit from the financial compensation normally given to former members of government.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Times view: France is living beyond its means \u2014 that\u2019s the root of political chaos<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

If he fails, Macron has indicated that he will \u201caccept his responsibilities\u201d, which was interpreted as meaning the president could call parliamentary elections or resign, although he has previously ruled out quitting before his term ends in 2027.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s popularity has plummeted amid the political instability caused by his disastrous decision to call snap elections last year, which left France with a fragmented parliament in which no party is close to holding a majority.<\/p>\n

Efforts to pass an austerity budget to reduce France\u2019s debt and deficit led to the collapse of the two governments that preceded Lecornu\u2019s, one led by Michel Barnier and the other by Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Rogery Boyes: France\u2019s political collapse is Europe\u2019s problem<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

An Odoxa opinion poll this week suggested that 70 per cent of French voters wanted Macron to quit.<\/p>\n

Some of the president\u2019s own allies have distanced themselves from him. \u00c9douard Philippe, a former prime minister, was among those urging him to resign<\/a> in the interests of the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prospect of snap parliamentary elections in France appears to have receded as S\u00e9bastien Lecornu, the outgoing prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-482643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115337956704903047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}