Sébastien Lecornu is the prime minister of France, appointed by Emmanuel Macron in September 2025—Mr Macron's fifth prime minister since 2022.
Background: Aged 39 at the time of his appointment. The son of an aerospace technician and a medical secretary from rural Normandy. Not a technocrat, nor educated at one of France's elite institutions. A former Republican, described as a "Gaullist"—a believer in a strong and independent state. A reservist in the gendarmerie.
Political career: Mr Lecornu has served in every one of Mr Macron's governments since 2017, most recently as defence minister, where he was respected for protecting the military budget. He is a close ally of the president and talks to those whose views he does not share, including the Socialists and Marine Le Pen of the hard-right National Rally.
As prime minister: He succeeded François Bayrou, whose minority government was toppled by parliament over a deficit-cutting budget—the second government to fall in nine months. He called himself "the weakest prime minister under the Fifth Republic."
Less than four weeks into office, Mr Lecornu unveiled a new centrist government that looked like the old one, provoking opposition fury. He resigned before he was pushed, becoming the shortest-serving prime minister under the Fifth Republic—the fourth Mr Macron lost in just over a year. Mr Macron asked him to stay on in a caretaker role. After talks with leaders from the Socialists, Greens, Communists, centrist parties and centre-right Republicans—Ms Le Pen's hard right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's hard left refused to take part—Mr Lecornu stayed on, forming a new minority government reliant on the 69 Socialists in the 577-seat lower house. Roland Lescure, a former financier, became his finance minister. The government suspended Mr Macron's 2023 pension reform—which had raised the retirement age from 62 to 64—as the price of Socialist support.
I often quote myself; it adds spice to my conversation.