Lecornu seeks budget alignment with National Rally
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is reaching out to the National Rally in an effort to align the government's budget plans, Les Echos reports.
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French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is seeking common ground with the National Rally on the budget, according to Les Echos.
The outreach comes as the National Rally is expected to propose a €125 billion savings package as part of the 2027 budget process, Les Echos reported. Lecornu has already pressed his own ministries to find more savings: in a letter dated 14 September, he asked for an additional €2.5 billion in cuts for the 2027 budget and set a strict 'zero value' freeze on ministry spending, according to Echos Plus, which cited Les Echos.
The National Rally has not been a reliable partner so far. The party tabled a no-confidence motion against Lecornu's government in October 2025, which failed by a wide margin, gathering 144 votes in the 577-seat National Assembly, Al Jazeera reported. National Rally leader Jordan Bardella called Lecornu's reappointment as prime minister a 'bad joke' and said he would try to vote out the new cabinet, Malay Mail reported.
The attempt to bring the National Rally into line on the budget points to a government trying to steady France's finances at a time of rising bond yields and slowing growth. Building a coalition around the budget is necessary given those pressures, but the manoeuvre remains fragile and its durability is unclear. Markets have stayed sceptical of France's fiscal path in recent months, and the outreach is likely to be treated as largely neutral unless the talks collapse or yields come under fresh pressure.