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The French leader has called upon his former prime minister to come back as French prime minister just days after he left the post, triggering a stretch of high drama and instability.

The president declared towards the end of the week, shortly after gathering key political groups together at the Élysée Palace, excluding the representatives of the extremist parties.

Lecornu's return came as a surprise, as he stated on television recently that he was not “chasing the job” and his task was complete.

Doubts remain whether he will be able to form a government, but he will have to act quickly. He faces a time limit on Monday to present the annual budget before the National Assembly.

Political Challenges and Fiscal Demands

The Élysée said the president had given him the duty of creating a administration, and his advisors suggested he had been given complete freedom to act.

Lecornu, who is one of the president's key supporters, then released a detailed message on X in which he accepted responsibly the task given to him by the president, to do everything to finalize financial plans by the end of the year and address the daily concerns of our compatriots.

Partisan conflicts over how to bring down the country's public debt and balance the books have caused the fall of several leaders in the last year, so his task is immense.

France's public debt earlier this year was almost 114% of gross domestic product – the number three in the euro area – and the annual fiscal gap is projected to hit 5.4% of GDP.

Lecornu said that “no-one will be able to shirk” the imperative of restoring the nation's budget. In just a year and a half before the completion of his mandate, he advised that prospective ministers would have to put on hold their presidential ambitions.

Governing Without a Majority

What makes it even harder for the prime minister is that he will face a vote of confidence in a National Assembly where Macron has lacks sufficient support to endorse his government. Macron's approval plummeted recently, according to a survey that put his approval rating on just 14%.

Jordan Bardella of the National Rally party, which was left out of consultations with faction heads on the end of the week, said that the decision, by a president increasingly isolated at the official residence, is a poor decision.

His party would immediately bring a motion of censure against a struggling administration, whose main motivation was avoiding a vote, Bardella added.

Building Alliances

Lecornu at least knows the pitfalls in his path as he tries to build a coalition, because he has already devoted 48 hours this week consulting political groups that might participate in his administration.

On their own, the moderate factions are insufficient, and there are disagreements within the traditionalists who have assisted the administration since he failed to secure enough seats in the previous vote.

So Lecornu will consider progressive groups for potential support.

As a gesture to progressives, officials indicated the president was evaluating a pause to part of his highly contentious social security adjustments passed in 2023 which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.

It was insufficient of what socialist figures desired, as they were expecting he would select a leader from the left. Olivier Faure of the leftist party stated “since we've not been given any guarantees, we won't give any guarantee” for the premier.

Fabien Roussel from the Communists stated following discussions that the left wanted real change, and a prime minister from the central bloc would not be accepted by the public.

Environmental party head Marine Tondelier remarked she was surprised Macron had offered the left almost nothing to the progressives, adding that “all of this is going to turn out very badly”.