Sébastien Lecornu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Official portrait, 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister of France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 9 September 2025[a] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Emmanuel Macron | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | François Bayrou | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| President of the Departmental CouncilofEure | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 July 2021 – 16 December 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Pascal Lehongre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Alexandre Rassaërt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 2 April 2015 – 10 July 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jean-Louis Destans | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Pascal Lehongre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senator forEure | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 October 2020 – 1 November 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Nicole Duranton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vice-President ofSeine Normandie Agglomération | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 18 April 2014 – 3 November 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Gérard Volpatti Frédéric Duché | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | François Ouzilleau | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mayor ofVernon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 April 2014 – 4 December 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Philippe Nguyen Thanh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | François Ouzilleau | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1986-06-11)11 June 1986 (age 39) Eaubonne, France | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Renaissance (2017–present) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | UMP (2002–2015) LR (2015–2017) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence(s) | Hôtel Matignon, Paris | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Panthéon-Assas University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sébastien Lecornu (French:[sebastjɛ̃ləkɔʁny]; born 11 June 1986) is a French politician who has served asPrime Minister of France since 2025. Positioned on theright of the ideologicalpolitical spectrum, Lecornu has promotedGaullist,Séguinist, andsocially conservative beliefs.[1][2][3]
Since leavingThe Republicans (LR) in 2017, Lecornu has been a member ofRenaissance (RE). Lecornu wasPresident of the Departmental Council ofEure from 2015 to 2017. In government, he served asSecretary of State to theMinister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition (2017–2018),Minister for Local Authorities (2018–2020),Minister of the Overseas (2020–2022) andMinister of the Armed Forces (2022–2025).
On 9 September 2025, Lecornu wasappointed as Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron after theBayrou government was brought down by a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly.[4] He resigned on 6 October 2025 after just 26 days in office, making his tenure as prime minister the shortest in the history of theFrench Fifth Republic.[5][6] He was in office as acaretaker prime minister until he was reappointed by President Macron on 10 October 2025.[7][8]
Lecornu was born on 11 June 1986 inEaubonne,Val-d'Oise Department, to Jean-Pierre Lecornu, an aeronautical technician at theSafran Aircraft Engines factory inVernon, and Martine Rousseau, a medical secretary.[9] Close to hisGaullist grandfather, a former resistance fighter and former vice-president of a chamber of commerce inCalvados, he was passionate about the army and politics and initially wanted to become a soldier. He also triedmonastic life at theAbbey of Saint-Wandrille.[10]
He completed his secondary studies at the private Catholic institution Saint-Adjutor de Vernon. Holder of abaccalauréat in economics and social sciences, he obtained a law degree and then began an unfinished master's degree in public law at thePanthéon-Assas University. Hiscurriculum vitae, however, stated he had obtained that degree.
In 2002, Lecornu became an activist in theUnion for a Popular Movement (UMP), joined the Young Right of the Vernon region (JDV), then campaigned during the campaign for the2004 regional elections.
In 2005, he became a parliamentary assistant toFranck Gilard, the member of theNational Assembly forEure's 5th constituency; Lecornu was, at the time, the youngest parliamentary assistant in the National Assembly.[11] In 2008, he became an advisor to Secretary of State for European AffairsBruno Le Maire; at age 22 Lecornu was the youngest advisor to an official in the government of Prime MinisterFrançois Fillon.
He is a member of theNational Gendarmerie operational reserve with the rank of lieutenant. He was appointed colonel as a reserve specialist in the fall of 2017.
In the2014 municipal election, Lecornu was elected Mayor ofVernon. Thecombination of two executive mandates being incompatible, he abandoned the town hall ofVernon on 4 December 2015.
Following the2015 departmental elections in which he was elected councillor for thecanton of Vernon alongside Catherine Delalande, Lecornu becamePresident of the Departmental Council ofEure.
Lecornu has highlighted his refusal to raise taxes and rigorous management of public money.Mediapart points out that the hunt forRSA fraudsters has been - with great communication support - the flagship policy pursued by the department since the arrival of Lecornu. Another flagship policy was closing two priority education colleges, which was justified by their low occupancy rates.[12]
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In 2017, Lecornu was appointed to be a Secretary of State to theMinister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition by PresidentEmmanuel Macron.
Lecornu was then suspended from his duties withinThe Republicans by the party and disciplinary exclusion proceedings were brought against him. He was excluded from LR on 31 October 2017, withGérald Darmanin, also a member of the government, and the members of theNational Assembly,Franck Riester andThierry Solère.[13] He then joinedLa République en marche.
Nicolas Hulot delegated issues related to energy in general to Lecornu. In particular, he was entrusted with several sensitive files such as the closure of theFessenheim Nuclear Power Plant, the opening of theFlamanville'sEPR, or the Cigeo nuclear waste landfill project inBure.[14]
On 16 October 2018, Lecornu was appointedMinister of Local Authorities to the Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities,Jacqueline Gourault.[15]
On 14 January 2019, Lecornu was appointed withEmmanuelle Wargon to lead the "great national debate", organised in order to get out of the crisis caused by theyellow vests movement.[16]
On 6 July 2020, Lecornu was appointedMinister of the Overseas in theCastex government.[citation needed] In this capacity, he held crisis talks on the French Caribbean territory ofGuadeloupe in late 2021, in an effort to defuse tensions amid unrest stemming from the government's handling of theCOVID-19 pandemic there.[17] He also announced that France would be willing to discuss autonomy for Guadeloupe.[18]
Elected senator for Eure in September 2020, he left his seat to Nicole Duranton, as he had announced before his election, after a period of one month after entering theLuxembourg Palace.[19][20] Affected by the accumulation of mandates, he resigned from his mandate as deputy mayor, which he had held since 2015, and from the municipal council of Vernon, on 3 November 2020; this resignation also led to his departure from the community council of theSeine Normandie Agglomeration.[21][22]
A candidate for re-election in the canton of Vernon during the2021 departmental elections, he came out on top in the first round with 58.74% of the votes cast, but the high abstention rate did not allow him to be directly elected.[23] He was re-elected in the second round with 81.11% of the votes. To everyone's surprise, while still Minister of Overseas Territories, he resumed the presidency of the Eure departmental council, obtaining the 39 votes of the majority, contrary to the practice established byLionel Jospin in 1997 of not combining an executive mandate with a government function; he was authorized to do so "for a time" byEmmanuel Macron andJean Castex.[24][25]
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On 20 May 2022, Lecornu was appointedMinister of the Armed Forces in theBorne government.[26]
Early in his tenure, Lecornu and Minister of Foreign AffairsCatherine Colonna travelled to Niger together to seal a regional redeployment, making the country the hub for French troops in theSahel region.[27]
AfterUkraine was invaded by Russia in 2022 andNATO allies were in the midst of supplying arms to Ukraine, Lecornu stated at the end of December 2022 in an official visit toKyiv that the two problems of maintenance and training were the reason for which theLeclerc tanks would stay at home. There were other troubling signs that all was not well with the effort to aid Ukraine. For example, although theCAESAR mobile artillery system had proven very useful to the June 2022 bombardment and recapture ofSnake Island and dominated the battle elsewhere, the Ukrainians were having difficulty with the maintenance of the 18 systems and the solution was problematic. Ukrainian defence ministerOleksiy Reznikov hoped that French tradesmen could be sent to Ukraine to service the artillery pieces.[28]
In December 2022, Lecornu andMariusz Błaszczak signed an agreement between France and Poland on the 575 million euros ($611.69 million) sale of twoAirbus Defence and Space observation satellites to Poland.[29]
In April 2023, he presented the Military Programming Law (LPM), which is to apply from 2024 to 2030, and provides for 413 billion euros of military spending over the seven years of the fiscal year. The annual budget will thus increase from 32 billion in 2017 to 69 billion euros in 2030, a doubling of funding for the armed forces. This budget must notably cover investments in theFrench nuclear arsenal, the construction of a new aircraft carrier and the increase in the number of armed forces. The government also plans to raise the age limit for reservists to 70, whereas it is currently between 62 and 65, with the objective of providing the armed forces with 300,000 soldiers, including 100,000 reservists. The intelligence services should also see their budget increase by 60%.[30]
In March 2024, Lecornu announced thatLes Forges de Tarbes would henceforth have the capacity to produce 4,000 artillery shells per month.[31] It produced 1,000 per month as of February 2022, the start of theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[32] Also in March 2024, according to Lecornu, the Russian war machine was able to fire between 10,000 and 15,000 shells per day in Ukraine war.[32]
In July 2024, Lecornu and his counterparts from Germany, Italy and Poland signed a letter of intent to develop ground-launched cruise missiles with a range beyond 500 km (310 miles).[33]
Lecornu was appointed Prime Minister on 9 September 2025 by President Emmanuel Macron.[2] He succeeded François Bayrou, who was forced to resign on the same day following the failure of a vote of confidence in the National Assembly the day before.[34][35][36]
Shortly after his appointment, Le Figaro and Paris Match revealed that Sébastien Lecornu visited former President Nicolas Sarkozy at his offices in the8th arrondissement of Paris,[37][38] who assured him of his friendship and support.[39]
On 13 September 2025, in an interview with the regional daily press, he announced that he would abandon the abolition and reinstating of the two public holidays, an unpopular measure sought by his predecessor François Bayrou.[40][41][42] Two days later, he announced the end of "lifetime benefits" for former members of the Government as of 1 January 2026.[43][44]
On 6 October 2025, Lecornu unveiled a cabinet that was similar to previous governments.[45] He resigned hours later amidst threats across the political spectrum to oust him.[46] Macron then tasked Lecornu with 48-hour talks to stabilise the government.[47] Lecornu also assumed the role of the minister of the armed forces on an interim basis afterBruno Le Maire resigned after only a few hours in office.[48] On 10 October 2025, Macron reinstated Lecornu as Prime Minister,[8] resulting in similar criticism.[49][50][51]
On 10 October, likeGeorges Pompidou andPierre Mauroy before him, Lecornu was reappointed by Emmanuel Macron as Prime Minister, four days after having resigned.[52][53] He stated that he had accepted "out of a sense of duty" and asserted that he wanted to form a "new government team" which, according to him, would "embody renewal and the diversity of skills."[54]
On 14 October, during his general policy statement amid internal conflicts with left-wing and right-wing politicians, he said he had "accepted the mission because France needs a budget, because there are emergency measures to be taken without delay," promised a "serious and reliable budget for France, useful and good for the French, within three months",[55][56] and announced that he would propose "to Parliament this autumn that we suspend the2023 pension reform until thepresidential election" and that "no increase in the age will take place from now until January 2028".[57]
In an address before the National Assembly, Lecornu said he supported the suspension of pension reforms until after the 2027 presidential election,[58] which led the Socialists to pledge its support for him against a no-confidence motion.[59] This led to Lecornu surviving two successive no-confidence motions filed byLa France Insoumise and theNational Rally respectively on 16 October.[60]
Lecornu described himself as "ratherGaullist,Séguinist, fundamentally right-wing",[1] as well as "liberal andEuropean",[61] while Le Monde described him in 2022 as "not really liberal or all thatsouverainist", allowing himself to be "sucked in by the identity temptations of the right, while knowing how to make himself appreciated on his left flank."[62]
Against what he calls "l’excuse sociale"("the social excuses"), he threatened in 2016 to not proceed with the increase to theRevenu de solidarité active (RSA) decided byManuel Valls's team as part of thegovernment's plan to combat poverty, and denounced a "clientelism that reeks of old-fashioned politics."[1]
Sébastien Lecornu opposed same-sex marriage in 2012. Declaring that "gay communitarianism frustrates [him] as much as homophobia",[63] he added that "marriage is the basis for building a family in our societies. And a family is built between a man and a woman."[64] In 2015, he spoke out against surrogacy and medically assisted procreation, before issuing an apparently contradictory opinion in 2019.[65]
Presented as the president's unofficial "Mr. Hunter" at the beginning of Emmanuel Macron's first term,[66] he defended traditional hunting as Secretary of State to the Minister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, and lowered the price of the national hunting permit.[1][67]
It was during Lecornu's term as Minister of the Armed Forces that, in September 2023, journalist Ariane Lavrilleux was sentenced to 39 hours of police custody and had her home searched for leaking information to the press about a secret Franco–Egyptian military operation. This is considered by Mediapart to be a "serious breach of theconfidentiality of sources." However, Lecornu has never "expressed any regret" over this affair.[68]
In the context of theGaza war, Mediapart and Disclose are investigating the €30 million in French arms exports to Israel. Questioned on this subject by theForeign Affairs Committee, Sébastien Lecornu questioned the rigor of these media outlets and refused to answer the former's questions.Amnesty International France deplored the lack of transparency in arms export controls under his tenure as minister, recalling that he opposed the creation of a new extra-parliamentary commission to evaluate exports of war materials and goods for civilian and military use. According to Mediapart, Sébastien Lecornu never "assumed the need to impose an embargo on French arms sales to Israel, even as accusations ofwar crimes and thengenocide in Gaza were becoming more precise."[69]
Lecornu publicly stated that France does not sell weapons to Israel, but exports components used in theIron Dome, which protects civilian populations, as well as elements subsequently assembled in Israel and re-exported, notably for use by theFrench Armed Forces.[70] To support his statements, he declassified a document in June 2025, which he submitted to parliamentarians. Three months later, however, Mediapart published an article reporting on the ministry's latest report on arms exports from France. According to the article, "orders from Israel amounted to €27.1 million in 2024," partially contradicting the minister's statements.[71]
In April 2025, Lecornu metMarine Le Pen several times in private meetings, organized at the home of his friend Thierry Solère or in his office at the Ministry of the Armed Forces.[72][73] His entourage acknowledged that one of these discussions concerned thewar in Ukraine, even though, as Mediapart notes, theNational Rally was funded by Russia.[74]
Knight of theOrder of Agricultural Merit (2012)[75]
Knight of theOrder of Arts and Letters (2017)[75]
National Defence Medal, bronze withGendarmerie nationale clasp (2015)[75]
Medal for Voluntary Military Service, silver (2017)[75]
Medal of Honor for Overseas Commitment, gold (2022)[75]
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Media related toSébastien Lecornu at Wikimedia Commons| Political offices | ||
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| Vacant Title last held by Estelle Grelier | Minister for Local Authorities 2018–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Overseas 2020–2022 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Armed Forces 2022–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by Bruno Le Maire | Minister of the Armed Forces Interim 2025 | Succeeded by |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded byas President of the Republic | Order of precedence in France Prime Minister | Succeeded byas President of the Senate |
Heads of government of theG20 | |
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