“We will succeed… because nothing is impossible,” said Sébastien Lecornu as he gave his maiden speech as France’s Prime Minister at his handover ceremony in Paris on September 9. He was appointed Premier by President Emmanuel Macron in less than 24 hours after the fall of François Bayrou’s government. Mr. Lecornu, 39, is now the country’s fifth Prime Minister in under two years.
Born on June 11, 1986 in Eaubonne, Val-d’Oise, Sébastien Lecornu is the son of an aeronautics factory technician and a medical secretary. His modest background, rooted in the small town of Vernon in Normandy, shaped his political outlook. “Unfortunately, I was born old,” he once joked, a self-effacing remark that hinted at both his receding hairline and the weight of early responsibilities. Politics, he says, was always present. “I never imagined myself holding government office so early,” Mr. Lecornu said.
Mr. Lecornu recalls the influence of his maternal grandfather, a decorated member of the anti-Nazi Resistance in Calvados during the Second World War, as an inspiration in his political journey.
By his late teens, Mr. Lecornu had already entered politics. At 19, he became a parliamentary attaché; at 22, an adviser to Bruno Le Maire, then a rising figure in the French right. At 28, he was elected Mayor of Vernon. By 2020, he had secured a Senate seat for Normandy. Alongside this steady rise, Mr. Lecornu maintained a dual identity: a reserve colonel in the National Gendarmerie (the military police) and a Frenchman fascinated by military history, a passion that would later define his role as France’s Defence Minister.
Strategic autonomy
Caution and discretion are the two keys to his longevity in government. A member of President Macron’s centrist Renaissance party, Mr. Lecornu has been a loyal ally since the start of the President’s first term, serving in every cabinet since 2017. He began as Secretary of State for Ecology, moved to overseas affairs, and in 2022 was handed the defence portfolio. As Defence Minister, Mr. Lecornu advocated Mr. Macron’s vision of European strategic autonomy. Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Lecornu has also become the face of France’s military build-up. In 2023, he shepherded the parliamentary vote on a new military planning law that foresaw €413 billion in defence spending from 2024 to 2030. He has cultivated ties across the political spectrum, earning a reputation as “the king of political flirting”. In the words of Gérald Darmanin, France’s long-time Interior Minister and one of Mr. Lecornu’s closest friends, “He has a great capacity for dialogue.”“He talks to everyone — from the hard-left France Unbowed party to the RN, (the far-right National Rally),” François Cormier-Bouligeon, a Renaissance lawmaker, told Le Monde.
Watch: France’s new PM Lecornu faces protests, debt crisis and political turmoil
However, Mr. Lecornu’s career has not been without controversies. As Overseas Minister, he oversaw the 2021 referendum in New Caledonia, which was boycotted by independence groups, undermining the vote’s legitimacy. He also struggled to prevent his home region of Eure from swinging heavily toward Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in both the 2022 presidential and 2024 legislative elections.
Green Party leader Marine Tondelier once condemned him as “homophobic”, citing the past comments he made, opposing same-sex marriage and adoption rights. Mr. Lecornu later softened his stance, acknowledging that he had “come a long way”, especially on medically assisted reproduction.
Mr. Lecornu studied at the private Catholic lycée Saint-Adjutor in Vernon before beginning a law degree in Paris. He enrolled in a master’s programme in public law, but did not complete it. Today, he lives, accompanied by his dog, Tiga, who is known to roam the corridors of the Armed Forces Ministry.
If Mr. Lecornu has sometimes been accused of playing the courtier to Mr. Macron, his loyalty has been rewarded. He has been part of the “Élysée boys’ club” — the President’s tight inner circle — and often accompanied Mr. Macron abroad. During the “Yellow Vest” crisis of 2018–19, he became a key architect of the “great national debate,” persuading the President to engage directly with Mayors and citizens, a move many credited with easing tensions.
Now, as Prime Minister, Mr. Lecornu faces the dual challenge of bridging the gap, as he puts it, “between real life and the political situation,” while also securing enough support in a divided Parliament, where no party has a majority, to pass a crucial budget, which is to be signed off by December 31.
Published – September 14, 2025 02:44 am IST
