Look for the necessary agreements for the financial 2026, then those for the decisions of the next few months: this is the mission entrusted by Emmanuel Macron to the loyal Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Defense. Negotiating, mediating, finding solutions to expand the majority, even before composing the government: the path clearly indicated in the appointment, imposes on Lecornu – which according to its collaborators has all the qualities of the mediator – to find understanding even before starting to govern.
Thirty -nine years old, former républicains who passed in the Macron team from the beginning of the adventure to the Elysée, 7/or premier in the two mandates of the president, will therefore have to measure himself with the rebus to make a country governable in which a clear majority is missing, a task in which the predecessor Bayrou failed. He will have to try to survive an extremely fragmented and overheated national assembly by the latest clashes.
The first reactions to the appointment of Lecornu give an idea of the climate that awaits the young premier: “The last cartridge of macronism”, he shouts furious marine le Pen, “a sad comedy” responds to the opposite extreme Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The socialists speak of “provocation”, even if at the Elysée they focus on the PS to expand a coalition which, according to the first reactions, could instead count on the full adhesion of the Républicains. Olivier Faure, a socialist secretary who had claimed a “left government”, did not answer the question of a journalist who asked him if his party could negotiate with a personality left from the Macronian coalition. Lecornu will have to, if he wants to form his government, create understanding, weave the canvas of agreements, counting on a “non -distrust” of the socialists, certainly indispensable to pass a difficult financial.
Political uncertainty risks weighing on the financial markets and, above all, on the decision of the Fitch Agency, expected for Friday, which could cut the France rating. And this after that, today, the ten -year titles of France were given on a par with the Italian ones. What the tools in the hands of Lecornu to succeed in an “impossible mission” in his role of “negotiator”, anticipated by the leader of the Macronian party, Gabriel Attal? Macron – according to observers – must necessarily have guaranteed. And the first of these would be the authorization to finally make real openings, if not concessions, to the socialists.
And Faure’s first request was the “Zucman tax”, the tax on super rich assets. For once, Macron who proclaimed himself “master of time” and who has always taken time before choosing his key men, decided in a few hours. Avoiding to prevaricate or, as they asked from Gauche, to receive the heads of the left parties before deciding. In his concern, he also counted the need to “not have a vacant power” on the eve of the “Bloquons Tout” movement, which aims to block France. And whose contours and potential are ignored, having been born and raised on social media.
One of the main qualities of the new premier, say the ones who worked close to him, is the discretion, the ability to maintain calm tones, to mediate. “Sébastien – he said a close collaborator of Edouard Philippe, a former premier who had Lecornu as a very young minister – is a great talent of politics, able to speak to the right and left, is an extraordinary man of dialogue”. So much to have the mandate to deal with the socialists while being able to count on good relations with the Rassemblement National: they caused controversy a series of lecornu dinners with Marine Le Pen and its deputies before the European 2024. With the young premier, Macron also brings to Matignon a real stunt double of himself, who will act under the direct authority of the Elisha. And, as an advantage, he will have not to be an presienting candidate, just as Macron wanted.