France PM Lecornu proposes retirement age freeze to avoid no-confidence vote
France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has proposed suspending a contested plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
The move is an attempt to avoid the immediate fall of his fragile minority government.
Speaking to the National Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Lecornu announced that the law, a key policy of President Emmanuel Macron, would be suspended until after the 2027 presidential elections.
Mr Lecornu urged lawmakers not to use the budget vote as an opportunity to bring down his government. He said: “There is no longer any justification for a no-confidence motion.”
Mr Lecornu addressed parliament to present his budget priorities, hoping to avert a no-confidence vote defeat that could tip France further into political instability.
It is understood that President Macron reappointed Mr Lecornu as PM after he had resigned and then said he no longer wished to lead the government.
He was reappointed after resigning o* 6 October, just 14 hours after his new cabinet was announced, following warnings from both allies and the opposition that they would initiate a motion to overthrow the government. His sudden decision, unprecedented in recent French history, triggered tensions in the financial markets, causing French stocks to fall and the euro to depreciate.
Mr Lecornu's appointment followed the defeat of former Prime Minister François Bayrou in a confidence vote requested on 8 September in the National Assembly, which led to the fall of the government in Paris. Amid a budget dispute, a majority of the National Assembly's deputies voted against the 74-year-old former head of government, who had led the government since December 2024. 194 deputies voted in favour of Mr Bayrou's cabinet, while 364 voted against.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
