New Prime Minister: Who is Sébastien Lecornu?

Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu was appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron. This very close friend of the president succeeds François Bayrou

The minister of the Armed Forces had already been approached in September 2024, when Michel Barnier arrived at Matignon then again three months later, when the choice fell on François Bayrou. His turn has finally come.

This faithful Macronist entered the government in 2017, an arrival which did not correspond to the “scent of cohabitation” sought by presidential strategists after the defeat in the legislative elections. So youngest recruit of the reshuffle, Sébastien Lecornu is, in fact, regularly the youngest personality we have ever seen in his position. Engaged in politics since his adolescence in Vernon, the young man was initially Secretary of State to Nicolas Hulot, Minister of Ecological Transition.

Former LR elected official (another one), Emmanuel Macron’s trusted man
and close to Edouard Philippe, the thirty-year-old who was appointed in 2022 to the Ministry of the Armed Forces within the new government, replacing Florence Parly. The one who climbed the steps of Macronian power step by step was also Minister of Local Authorities, then Overseas Territories. He is also the initiator of the great post-“yellow vest” national debate.

“I don’t come from the left, I’m a Republican”

Born June 11, 1986 in Eaubonne (Val-d’Oise), Sébastien Lecornu was an activist in politics very early on: at the age of 16 he joined the UMP in Vernon, the city of which he became mayor (his dream) in 2014, ousting a PS mayor. Barely having completed his baccalaureate, in 2005 he offered his services to Franck Gilard, the deputy for the constituency. He was only 19 years old at the time, and became the youngest parliamentary assistant in France.

“I don’t come from the left, but I am a Republican”, Sébastien Lecornu emphasized again last Thursday, specifying that he worked “with the Republican left” in his department of l’Eure. In terms of domestic politics, however, he believed that it was necessary to “do everything so that the socialists detach themselves from La France insoumise”…

Bruno le Maire, his mentor

Let’s go back to 2005. At that time, pursuing law studies at the University of Assas in Paris (bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public law), Sébastien Lecornu was offered a position as advisor to Bruno Le Maire, Secretary of State for Affairs Europeans in the first Fillon government. Since then, the two men have not left each other.

In 2015, with the support of his mentor, he helped to shift the Eure departmental council to the right, and became, at the age of 28, the youngest department president in France. He will find himself on the front line during the fall 2016 right-wing primary campaign, in support… by Bruno Le Maire who will only obtain 2.3% of the votes.

Deputy Director of Campaign François Fillon, he will pack up, just like Bruno Le Maire, responsible for international affairs, when the former Prime Minister decided to maintain his presidential candidacy despite his indictment in the case of the allegedly fictitious jobs of his wife Pénélope.

Sébastien Lecornu was singled out in the press for a dinner with Marine Le Pen, which makes him “the man of negotiation with the RN in the socialist psyche”, according to a minister.

On the budget, while his predecessor was accused of dramatizing the question of debt, Sébastien Lecornu recently affirmed that he did not believe that the IMF was “at the gates of Bercy” but said he was certain that “if we do nothing, the country will slowly suffocate. He will be able to deliver his battle plan to the French.