PARIS (AP) — French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes Thursday that could have toppled his fragile new government and plunged France into even greater political chaos.
The National Assembly votes clear the way for the embattled Lecornu to face what could be an even bigger challenge: getting Parliament’s powerful but bitterly divided lower house to approve a 2026 budget for the European Union’s second-largest economy before the end of the year.
Lecornu’s survival also avoids any immediate need for President Emmanuel Macron to again dissolve the National Assembly and call early legislative elections, a dangerous option the French leader had signaled he could take if Lecornu fell.
The French president’s close ally faced two motions of no confidence brought forward by Macron’s fiercest opponents: the far-left France Insoumise party and Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally party and her allies in Parliament.
The 577-seat chamber voted first on the France Insoumise motion, falling short by 18 votes, with 271 lawmakers supporting it. He needed a majority of 289 votes to succeed.
Le Pen’s second motion garnered just 144 votes, well short of a majority.
But Lecornu is not out of the woods yet.
To get the votes he needed, Lecornu raised the possibility of reversing one of the signature but most unpopular reforms of Macron’s second term as president, which will gradually raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64.
Lecornu’s proposal to suspend the 2023 pension reform helped convince lawmakers from the opposition Socialist Party to reluctantly decide not to back efforts to overthrow him, at least for now. With 69 legislators, socialist support for Lecornu’s dismissal would have tilted the votes against him. But only seven socialists broke ranks by voting in favor of the Insoumise France motion.
Conservative Republicans, with 50 legislators, also denied their support for Lecornu’s impeachment, with only one exception.
But Lecornu’s still fragile position could crumble in the coming weeks or months if Socialist or Republican lawmakers change course and support future no-confidence motions if they don’t get what they want in what are sure to be contentious budget negotiations.
Lecornu has vowed not to use a special constitutional power to force the budget through parliament without the approval of lawmakers, which was the tool Macron’s government used to push through the 2023 pension reform despite a storm of protests.
Reaching consensus in Parliament for tax increases, spending cuts and other budget measures to begin to rein in France’s growing deficit and state debt promises to be extremely difficult.