From Reuters, February 8:
Less than a week after surviving a five-month-long battle over France's 2026 budget, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu set out his agenda over the weekend, prioritising energy and defence.
Budget wrangling consumed French politics for nearly two years and cost two prime ministers before Lecornu was appointed in September."France has a budget that aims to reduce the deficit to 5% without raising taxes. Few believed it would happen in the autumn," Lecornu said.
Despite rising popularity and polls showing neither President Emmanuel Macron's centrists nor conservatives could defeat the far-right National Rally in the 2027 presidential election, Lecornu repeated he had no interest in running.He added that a minor cabinet reshuffle would take place ahead of March local elections.
Here are Lecornu's priorities for the coming months.
ENERGY
The prime minister said the government's next "multi‑year energy programme" would be signed by decree by the end of next week, after more than two years of delays.
He confirmed that state-owned EDF will build six new nuclear reactors, with an option for eight others, while investment in renewable energy - including offshore wind, solar and geothermal power — would remain "ambitious"."Next, we will need to consider incentives to speed up electrification. The goal is to ensure that 60% of our consumption in 2030 is electric."
DEFENCE
"Increasing the defence budget (57 billion euros or $67.35 billion), which will double between 2017 and 2027, is essential ... we must continue," Lecornu said....
....MUCH MORE
