The irresistible rise of Sébastien Lecornu, from the corridors of power to Matignon

Sébastien Lecornu's arrival at Matignon has only been postponed by nine months. The Minister of the Armed Forces was due to be appointed Prime Minister on December 13, 2024, before François Bayrou threatened to "smash everything" and oust him. The Béarnese, ousted by the National Assembly on September 8, President Emmanuel Macron finally had the way clear to install the most discreet and loyal of his ministers on Rue de Varenne. The longest-serving one too. Sébastien Lecornu is, at 39, the oldest member of the government, having served as a minister without interruption for over eight years.

Yet the French don't know him. Originally from Normandy, the only son of an aeronautical technician and a medical secretary, he first campaigned, from the age of 16, for the UMP, then for the Republicans (LR). A parliamentary assistant to the UMP deputy for Eure Bruno Le Maire at 22, he was elected mayor of Vernon at 28, and the following year he became the youngest president of the same department.

He joined the first government of Edouard Philippe (2017-2020), of which he was the youngest, in Bruno Le Maire's luggage, in June 2017, without ever having met Emmanuel Macron. Initially Secretary of State to Nicolas Hulot, Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, the Norman was in charge of local authorities from October 2018. The Head of State discovered him in 2019, on the occasion of the great national debate post-crisis of the "yellow vests"; the first took place in Grand-Bourgtheroulde, in his constituency. The elected representative of the department advised the president to involve the mayors and to open books of grievances. It was a success.

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