🇫🇷Lecornu 2 is go
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu survives two censure motions, 1,700 amendments are submitted for the 2026 budget, and someone robbed the Louvre this morning.
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This week
🔫Lecornu survives two censure motions
📝1,700 amendments for the budget
🚓Someone robbed the Louvre
💬Caption Contest
🔫Lecornu survives two censure motions
So, ladies and gentlemen, the big story of the week: Sébastien Lecornu’s second government has beaten the 836-minute record of his first, survived two motions of censure, and it’s looking like his government may be able to finally get to work.
Before we discuss the potential 2026 budget, let’s have a look at what happened this Wednesday 15 October 2025, when Lecornu faced a challenge that took down both of his predecessors.
To begin with, let’s look at the Rassemblement National - Union des Droites pour la République censure motion:
So, the important thing to note here is that this is once again an example of the cordon sanitaire, with the far-right censure motion being ignored by just about everyone except a few sympathisers from Les Républicains.
This was, of course, to be expected, as not only are the Rassemblement National still relatively toxic in the French political space, but many of the parties understand that actively working with them is not great for their political futures.
The RN’s attempt wasn’t helped by the fact that, as this was the second censure motion, the numbers simply weren’t there. Though, if they’d gone first then this would have looked identical.
For the main event of the day:
Now, this motion of censure was the nuclear bomb that was the most likely to take the nascent Lecornu II government down, and with 271 votes in favour, the vote failed by only 18 votes.
While many undoubtedly sighed in relief and were happy with this, there’s a bigger problem on the horizon here for Sébastien Lecornu and his government, which I covered during my Q&A with
last week here:What the hell is happening in France? Q&A with Dave and Julien
A Q&A on the French political crisis with Dave Keating, covering what led us here, whether Lecornu 2 will last, what the French budget procedure is, and whether we'll even have one for 2026
As I explained during our Substack live, Lecornu could give in to the demands of the left and say that he’ll walk back the 2023 Pension Reforms, but then the problem that he faces is that if this only wins him a small majority, then he’s dependent on that small majority and could effectively be held hostage.
Which may very well be what ends up happening.
With only an 18-vote safety net on his hands, this means PM Sébastien Lecornu is now entirely dependent on support from the Parti Socialiste, and is effectively in an informal centrist / centre-left coalition with implicit centre-right support.
Now, within 20 minutes of the vote, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise, represented by his potential successor Mathild Panot, declared war on the Parti Socialiste (as expected) and called on Socialists to join both La France Insoumise and the “popular and parliamentary resistance” to Macron and Lecornu.
Naturally, this was a complicated sell, seeing how First Secretary Olivier Faure is the one who secured the repeal of the Pension Reform, and not the far-left LFI, mais bref.
Mélenchon, for his part, ignored this reality, and while stating that the “Central Bloc had disappeared” (above), he immediately went on the attack and starting accusing Faure of being a liar:
“Censorship narrowly failed thanks to the Macron-Faure pact.
However, Faure claims that censorship would have allowed the government to pass a tougher special law. Nonsense.
A special law can only repeat the previous year’s budget. Barnier’s budget, already renewed under Bayrou, was much less harsh than Lecornu’s.
Let us add this: there can be no special law in the event of dissolution because there is no longer an Assembly...
Why is Faure saying these false things? What is his real agreement ‘in the secrecy of conversations’ that Lecornu mentioned three times?”
This was followed by a press release from La France Insoumise, where they immediately tried to put up walls around the Socialist Party, and made a point of referencing how LFI, the Ecologists, and the Communists were the ones who fought against the government, and are forming the popular and parliamentary resistance.
Which is very important for one very specific reason:
For the last year, Olivier Faure’s Parti Socialiste has been actively working to separate the left from the influence of the far-left, and Faure himself has been pushing to exclude La France Insoumise from the left bloc that is preparing for the 2027 Presidential elections.
So, when the Socialists choose not to vote with the rest of the left bloc, choosing instead to allow the Government to put forward a budget that will see the suspension of the unpopular Pension Reform until after the 2027 elections, then this is the perfect moment for Mélenchon to take revenge on his former ally.
Which is why Faure, who everyone is admitting has become much more of a fighter and a leader compared to how he was a few years ago, has actively been fighting back against these tactics, such as in this interview with left-wing outlet Mediapart:
“Those who seek to bring down the president, whether they are called Philippe or Mélenchon, want to return to a kind of hyper-president. I want us to weaken the presidential role in favour of Parliament to gain a benefit from it.”
All of this to say: we’ll have plenty to discuss here on The French Dispatch.
Speaking of budgets…
📝1,700 amendments for the budget
So, with the Lecornu 2 government sitting tight for the time being, this means that work on the 2026 budget can begin in earnest, with the LFI-controlled Commission des Finances preparing to examine the Revenue segment of the budget this coming Monday 20 October.
While Eric Coquerel (LFI) had specifically requested that there only be a maximum of 1,2000 amendments submitted, the commission will now have to through 1,710 amendments to the first part of the budget.
To begin with, they will have to investigate how many of these amendments are actually admissible in the first place, which should lower the number somewhat.
However, this will complicate the effort to go through all of the amendments quickly enough that the Commission can go through the entire budget in the space of three days, with the goal being to clear the workload before the budget text lands in the Assemblée this coming Friday 24 October.
We’ll be keeping an eye on this procedure as things develop, and will probably spend a cosy Sunday evening reading through a chunk of the 1749 amendments that have been put forward.
It may even lead to me creating a Politics 101 explainer on the functioning of the French republic
🚓Someone robbed the Louvre
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So, to end the week, sadly, we have some bad news:
As announced by Culture Minister Rachida Dati this morning, a robbery took place this morning as the famous Louvre museum opened, with three criminals being on the run with jewellery that was taken from the museum between 09h30 and 09h40 this morning.
Fortunately, as announced by Culture Minister Dati and sources close to the investigation, there were no injuries to report during the robbery, which was completed using a scooter, a freight elevator, and small chainsaws.
The jewellery stolen was, reportedly, from the collection of Napoleon and the Empress.
💬Caption Contest
Honestly, there’s just so much happening in this picture, so please go wild.
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