Sébastien Lecornu Prime Minister: “Liaison agent with the RN”, “sad comedy”… The unleashed oppositions

Reaction: “Provocation”, “contempt”, “liaison agent with the RN”: the left castigates the appointment of Sébastien Lecornu to the post of Prime Minister. While LFI promises censorship, LR says it is ready to “find agreements”

The essential

The appointment of Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister provokes very critical reactions from the left, which denounces “a sad comedy of contempt for Parliament” according to Jean-Luc Mélenchon and describes this decision as “provocation” illustrating “the total non-respect of the French “.
Marine Le Pen mocks a president “bunkered with his small square of faithful” who “pulls the last cartridge of Macronism”, while Jordan Bardella adopts a more cautious position by promising to judge the new Prime Minister “on documents, on his actions, to its orientations.
The presidential camp and its allies support this appointment, with Édouard Philippe declaring that Lecornu has “the qualities” to “discuss and find an agreement” with the other parties, and Bruno Retailleau of the Republicans expressing his desire to “find agreements” to build a “national majority”.

The appointment of Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister, to Matignon provoked an avalanche of reactions in the political class on Tuesday. Between virulent criticism from the left, caution from the right and satisfaction from those close to the president, the former Minister of the Armed Forces is already causing strong divisions.

The new Prime Minister has chosen the social network (ex-Twitter) to speak after his appointment. He evokes the president’s directives, “the defense of [our] independence and [our] power, the service of the French and political and institutional stability” and salutes his predecessor François Bayrou “for the courage he showed in defending his convictions to the end. ”

A left united against Macron and Lecornu

La France insoumise (LFI) denounced with one voice a “forceful passage” by Emmanuel Macron. The official LFI account in the Assembly spoke of Lecornu as “Macron’s liaison agent with the RN”, accusing the president of moving forward hand in hand with the far right.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon castigated on X “a sad comedy of contempt for Parliament ” and repeated that “only the departure” of the president himself could put an end to the political crisis. In the same vein, the president of the LFI group in the National Assembly Mathilde Panot described the appointment as a “provocation”, recalling that Lecornu “faced with the Yellow Vests or the Guadeloupeans fighting for water only responded with the repression”. She called for a massive mobilization on Wednesday from the social movement “Let’s block everything”.

“Total non-respect of the French”

For the LFI deputy for Marseille, Manuel Bompard, Emmanuel Macron’s decision illustrates the president’s “contempt” and “denial of democracy”. He calls for both the street demonstration and the vote on an impeachment motion at the’National Assembly. Louis Boyard for his part, denounced the president’s choice. “Youth demanded ecology, peace, equality, education, justice. Macron gave them a minister of war, in reference to Lecornu’s portfolio in the Armed Forces.

Environmentalists have joined these criticisms: Marine Tondelier, on BFMTV, spoke of “provocation” and “total non-respect of the French”, believing that “all this is going to end badly”.

“You don’t change a losing team”

For her part, Marine Le Pen mocks a president “bunkered with his small square of faithful” who “pulls the last cartridge of Macronism”. She assures that after probable early legislative elections, Jordan Bardella (the president of the National Rally) would take the head of government. The latter reacted more cautiously, judging that “it is not a question of people, but of the policy pursued” and promising to judge Lecornu “on documents, on his actions, on his orientations”. “You don’t change a losing team. How could a loyal supporter of the President break with the policy he has been pursuing for eight years? ” he wrote on X.

For the president of Debout la France, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, “we take the same ones and start again” evoking “contempt for the French people. ”

“Find agreements”

In the presidential camp and its allies, the tone is different. The mayor of Vernon (whose new Prime Minister was mayor at the age of 27), François Ouzilleau, a long-time friend, welcomed his appointment and sent him his “encouragement to take up this challenge”. “Proud to see my friend of 20 years, Sébastien Lecornu, appointed Prime Minister”, he said.

On TF1, former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe declared that the new Prime Minister had “the qualities” to “discuss and find an agreement” with the other parties.

On the Républicains side, Bruno Retailleau, party leader and outgoing Minister of the Interior, said he wanted to “find agreements” to build a “national majority”, “welcoming” in passing that no socialist had been appointed to Matignon.