Description: France’s reappointed Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, survived two no confidence votes in the National Assembly filed by the far – right National Rally and the far – left France Unbowed parties. Lecornu managed to secure the necessary support from the Socialist party by vowing to dismantle Macron’s pension reform which raised the retirement age in the country from 62 to 64. Lecornu also promised not to invoke the special powers of the Prime Minister in using the 49.3 Article which stated that a resolution for the country’s budget could be introduced without parliamentary voting or previous debates. The situation briefly stabilized, however, Lecornu would have to appease the fractious political landscape in the National Assembly in order to introduce the highly sought after national budget ailed by growing debts and necessary budget cuts.
Import: Lecornu managed to navigate the political crisis towards an informal ceasefire which is yet to be resolved as the major task of introducing the budget still remains a major political and economic issue. The tightly contested vote saw some partisan defections from the Socialists and the Republicans which signaled that the political turmoil is still far from finished. The Prime Minister also managed to buy President Macron some time as he was facing tremendous pressure to resign or call for snap elections. The budget remains France’s central problem in resolving the crisis with bids to modify budget cuts and introduce new debt reforms pouring from every political party in the National Assembly. Lecornu is expected to eventually successfully navigate the budget question as he has so far proven to offer carefully curated concessions to the political opposition in order to gather support for the budget’s official introduction.