US EditionFrance’s new PM renounces using special powers at parliament to seek compromise instead
Lecornu aims to avoid a no-confidence vote by seeking cross-party agreement on the 2026 budget amid a fragmented parliament, marking a shift from previous budget approval tactics.
- At the Hotel Matignon in Paris on Friday Oct. 3, 2025, Sébastien Lecornu, Prime Minister, renounced Article 49.3 and said lawmakers must decide on the budget.
- After being named last month, Sébastien Lecornu, Prime Minister, lacks a parliamentary majority in the fragmented French parliament and seeks to prevent a no-confidence motion on Friday.
- Article 49.3 of the Constitution lets prime ministers bypass votes but risks no-confidence votes, and Olivier Faure demanded a parliamentary vote to change the pension reform, saying `We don't just want procedural steps, we want the French people's lives to change`.
- Marine Le Pen welcomed Lecornu's decision not to use 49.3 but warned he must break from Macron's policy or face voting him out.
- With fiscal pressure mounting, France faces a ballooning deficit and must pass the 2026 budget by year-end, while Lecornu hopes to secure moderates and The Republicans' support.
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While the Prime Minister has announced that he will not use section 49.3 for the budget review, other constitutional tools are still at his disposal if the debate comes to a halt.
In a note published on his blog, the boss of the Insoumis details the list of many articles of the Constitution that the Prime Minister could use to replace 49.3, which he abandoned yesterday.
French Air Traffic Controllers Union Cancels Three-Day Strike
France’s main air traffic controllers’ union canceled a three-day strike planned to start Oct. 7, citing in part Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s decision on Friday not to invoke a constitutional tool known as Article 49.3 to bypass votes in parliament on the 2026 budget bill.
Sébastien Lecornu undertook not to use article 49, paragraph 3, of the Constitution to force a piece of legislation, but other tools exist.
New French PM tries to gain opposition backing
France's new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu Friday promised the opposition not to ram his austerity budget through parliament without a vote, in an apparent bid to avoid a no-confidence motion like the one that toppled his predecessor last month.
The Prime Minister assured this Friday that he would not resort to Article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the budget adopted. A promise received with caution by the oppositions, who fear that...
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