French PM battles on

FRENCH Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has survived two votes of no-confidence that could have toppled his fragile new government and plunged France deeper into political chaos.

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The National Assembly votes clear the way for the embattled Mr Lecornu to pursue what could be an even greater challenge: getting a 2026 budget for the European Union's second-largest economy through parliament's powerful but bitterly divided lower house before the end of the year.

Mr Lecornu’s survival also spares any immediate need for President Emmanuel Macron to again dissolve the National Assembly and call snap legislative elections, a hazardous option that the French leader had signalled he might take if Mr Lecornu fell.