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The French leader has asked his former prime minister to resume duties as French prime minister only four days after he resigned, causing a week of political upheaval and instability.

Macron declared on Friday evening, hours after gathering all the main parties in one place at the official residence, excluding the figures of the far right and far left.

His reappointment came as a surprise, as he declared on broadcast recently that he was not seeking the position and his role had concluded.

Doubts remain whether he will be able to establish a ruling coalition, but he will have to hit the ground running. The new prime minister faces a cut-off on Monday to submit financial plans before parliament.

Leadership Hurdles and Fiscal Demands

The presidency announced the president had “tasked [Lecornu] with forming a government”, and those close to the president indicated he had been given complete freedom to make decisions.

The prime minister, who is one of the president's key supporters, then released a comprehensive announcement on X in which he agreed to take on “out of duty” the mission entrusted to me by the president, to make every effort to provide France with a budget by the year's conclusion and respond to the everyday problems of our fellow citizens.

Partisan conflicts over how to reduce France's national debt and cut the budget deficit have led to the fall of two of the past three prime ministers in the recent period, so his challenge is daunting.

France's public debt in the past months was close to 114% of economic output (GDP) – the third largest in the currency union – and current shortfall is projected to hit over five percent of GDP.

Lecornu said that everyone must contribute the necessity of repairing the nation's budget. Given the limited time before the completion of his mandate, he cautioned that prospective ministers would have to put on hold their political goals.

Ruling Amid Division

Compounding the challenge for Lecornu is that he will face a vote of confidence in a parliament where Macron has no majority to endorse his government. Macron's approval reached its lowest point this week, according to an Elabe poll that put his approval rating on 14 percent.

The far-right leader of the National Rally party, which was left out of the president's discussions with party leaders on the end of the week, said that the decision, by a president “more than ever isolated and disconnected” at the Élysée, is a “bad joke”.

His party would quickly propose a vote of no confidence against a struggling administration, whose only reason for being was fear of an election, Bardella added.

Building Alliances

The prime minister at least is aware of the challenges in his path as he tries to establish a cabinet, because he has already devoted 48 hours recently consulting political groups that might support him.

Alone, the central groups cannot form a government, and there are splits within the conservative Republicans who have helped prop up the ruling coalition since he lost his majority in recent polls.

So Lecornu will look to socialist factions for future alliances.

As a gesture to progressives, the president's advisors hinted the president was considering a delay to some aspects of his divisive retirement changes implemented recently which extended working life from 62 up to 64.

The offer was inadequate of what left-wing leaders desired, as they were expecting he would choose a leader from the left. Olivier Faure of the leftist party stated lacking commitments, they would withhold backing to back the prime minister.

Fabien Roussel from the Communists stated following discussions that the left wanted real change, and a leader from the moderate faction would not be accepted by the French people.

Greens leader the Green figure remarked she was surprised Macron had offered the left almost nothing to the progressives, adding that “all of this is going to turn out very badly”.