'France can avoid snap poll' with budget compromise possible, says caretaker PM

France's caretaker prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said a majority of MPs "reject the idea" of snap elections and "a path still exists" that should allow the president, Emmanuel Macron, to appoint a new premier within 48 hours.

- Jon Henley

Macron, pictured with his wife, Brigitte, has faced opposition requests to hold snap elections or resign

(RAPHAËL LAFARGUE/ABACA/SHUTTERSTOCK)

"Several groups are willing to seek agreement on a budget" for 2026, Lecornu told France 2 yesterday, and were making clear their "conditions". Talks would be difficult, he said, but "the prospect of a dissolution [of parliament] is fading".

Lecornu, who resigned on Monday after 27 days in office but was given 48 hours by the French president to try to rally support for a new government, presented his conclusions to Macron at the Elysée palace earlier yesterday.

Macron was reelected for a five-year term in 2022, but since snap parliamentary elections last summer a hung parliament ousted two successive PMs who failed to find a majority for austerity budget plans, plunging France into one of its deepest political crises since the foundation of the Fifth Republic in 1958.

Lecornu became the third to go when he tendered his government's resignation just 14 hours after his new cabinet had been unveiled, saying opposition to the lineup from allies and opponents alike would make it impossible for him to do the job.

He said yesterday that reducing France's ballooning budget deficit - projected to exceed 5.5% of GDP this year, almost twice the EU's permitted limit - was "vital, including for France's image abroad and for our capacity to borrow".