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Lecornu faces divided parliamentBudget draft must be presented by MondayLecornu pledges cabinet of 'renewal and diversity'Sebastien Lecornu began his second stint as French prime minister under a cloud of uncertainty on Saturday, forced to pick a new cabinet to present a budget by a Monday deadline as rivals pledged to topple his government.French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed his staunch supporter late on Friday, just days after Lecornu had resigned from the post, saying there was no way to form a government capable of passing a slimmed-down 2026 budget through a deeply divided parliament.Lecornu's 27 days in office made him the shortest serving prime minister in modern French history, but there is no guarantee he will last any longer this time round.Macron's decision to reappoint Lecornu enraged some of his fiercest opponents who have argued the only way out of France's worst political crisis in decades is for the president to call fresh legislative elections or resign. Leftist, hard-left and far-right parties all said they would vote to topple Lecornu, leaving him reliant on the Socialists, whose leaders have so far kept mum on their plans.Lecornu's inbox is pressing. By Monday, he must present a draft budget bill - first to cabinet, and then on the same day to parliament. That means, at a minimum, the ministers responsible for finance, budget, and social security must be appointed by then.Neither the Elysee palace nor Lecornu's office, Matignon, gave immediate indication on when he could name his cabinet, or who could be in it.In an X post on Friday, Lecornu said that whoever joined his government would have to renounce their personal ambitions to succeed Macron in 2027, a contest that has injected instability into France's weak minority governments and fractious legislature. He pledged a cabinet of "renewal and diversity".Lecornu has not disclosed any details about what is in the draft, but he did say after he resigned that the budget deficit must be reduced to between 4.7% and 5% of economic output next year, a bigger gap than the 4.6% targeted by his predecessor. The deficit is forecast at 5.4% this year.It remains to be seen what he will do about repealing Macron's pensions reform and adding a billionaires' tax - two measures the Socialists had made their price to support his weak minority government.

Stuart Williams Shortly after French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu resigned after less than a month in the job, President Emmanuel Macron was filmed walking by the River Seine in Paris deep in phone conversation with only his security detail at a discreet distance.Whom Macron was speaking to and what he was discussing remains unclear. But the image symbolised the political solitude of the president as he faces a dwindling array of options, all of them hazardous.What will Macron, who must step down as president in 2027 after serving the maximum two mandates, do next?Here are four options evoked by analysts. None offer a quick solution.Reappoint Lecornu Macron appears to have given himself this option after Bruno Le Maire, a loyal former finance minister whose appointment as defence minister triggered the crisis, said he would withdraw from the government.The Elysee then announced Lecornu was being given two days to put together an action plan, with the premier saying he would hold "final discussions" with "all the political forces".But it is far from clear that Lecornu would be able to appoint a government, let alone survive a confidence vote in parliament where his forces are in the minority.Even were his mission to succeed, his reappointment as premier would not be automatic, said a French presidential official."The fundamentals of the problem remain the same: with or without Le Maire, they (the other parliamentary blocs) don't agree on the budget, pension reform, immigration and so forth," said Paul Taylor, senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre.A new PM If Macron appointed a new prime minister, the person would be the eighth premier of his rule and the third this year alone — not good for France's reputation.The left wants him to appoint a person who would push through a more expansive budget. But it is far from clear Macron would do this and even if he did, the new premier might not even enjoy support from throughout the fractious left."Another PM could be toppled within weeks — making a new legislative election almost inevitable," said the Eurasia Group risk analysis firm.Early elections Macron has always resisted calling early elections, after his gamble to call snap polls in summer 2024 backfired and left France with a hung parliament.But the president will "assume his responsibilities" if Lecornu fails over the next two days, a presidential official said, in apparent reference to calling early elections.Such elections could lead to the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen bolstering its presence in parliament and even giving her protege Jordan Bardella the chance of becoming premier.The outcome of such polls is far from clear, though Le Pen has described such elections as "absolutely essential"."It is uncertain whether new elections will produce a different result than the one from last July," said Celia Belin, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).ResignMacron has always rejected resigning before his mandate ends, which would trigger early presidential elections. But pressure is building on the president like never before."If new snap elections do not allow for a governing majority, the political crisis could turn into a regime crisis. In this case, President Macron's ability to stay in power could be questioned," said Belin.