France’s new prime minister names a government that might not last long

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PARIS (AP) — France’s new prime minister named a government Sunday, bringing back former finance minister Bruno Le Maire to serve at the defense ministry, where he’ll help oversee French military support for Ukraine and address threats to European security posed by Russia.

Other key positions in the new cabinet, announced by President Emmanuel Macron ‘s office, remain largely unchanged, with conservative Bruno Retailleau staying on as interior minister, in charge of policing and internal security, Jean-Noël Barrot remaining as foreign minister, and Gérald Darmanin keeping the justice ministry.

But the life span of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s new minority government risks being short, facing hostility in Parliament where it lacks a stable majority. Macron’s opponents on the left of the National Assembly are mustering efforts to bring down Lecornu with a no-confidence vote, and the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen is pushing for snap legislative elections.

The immediate priority for 39-year-old Lecornu, a centrist and close ally of Macron, is to keep his job. Macron promoted Lecornu — previously the defense minister — last month as France’s fourth prime minister in a year, after his predecessor was ousted by the deeply divided parliament amid turmoil over spending cuts.

The prolonged political instability is complicating French government efforts to tackle the country’s budget difficulties and weakening Macron’s position domestically as he wrestles with pressing international challenges, including wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the shifting priorities of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Le Maire — a former government heavyweight as finance minister until last year — takes over as defense minister from Lecornu, whose promotion to prime minister put him in the hot seat of the political turmoil that has gripped France for more than a year, with minority governments lurching from crisis to crisis, collapsing in short order one after the other.

The political deadlock is rooted in Macron’s stunning decision to dissolve the National Assembly, parliament’s powerful lower house, in June 2024. That triggered a legislative election that the French leader hoped would strengthen the hand of his pro-European centrist alliance. But the gamble backfired, producing a splintered legislature with no dominant political bloc in power for the first time in France’s modern republic.

Other than Le Maire, the most notable new cabinet appointment is Roland Lescure as finance minister. France’s economy is one of the world’s biggest and the second-largest in the European Union. But France’s ballooning deficit and debts are worrying investors and dividing political opinion. Lescure previously held more junior roles under the finance ministry until last year.

Lecornu will face a key test on Tuesday when he gives a speech to the National Assembly, outlining his government’s direction and his plans for crafting next year’s budget — a pressing but divisive national priority.

He announced Friday that he will not use a special constitutional power to force a budget through parliament without a vote — as predecessors have done — and will instead seek a compromise with lawmakers from the left and the right.

Unions and activists have staged three days of nationwide protests since Lecornu’s appointment, including one that shut down the Eiffel Tower on Thursday, protesting expected spending cuts to public services.