France's Macron won't resign, as no-confidence votes threaten his new government

By Alessandro Parodi

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron rejected calls to resign and blasted his opponents on Monday, as his latest government was threatened by two no-confidence motions that could bring it down by the end of the week.

France is in the midst of its worst political crisis in decades as a succession of minority governments seek to push deficit-reducing budgets through a truculent legislature split into three distinct ideological blocs.

Macron has burned through five prime ministers in less than two years, and many of his rivals have said the only way out of the crisis is for the president to call fresh legislative elections or resign, both of which he has refused to do.

SHRINKING CONFIDENCE

Shortly after arriving in Egypt on Monday to attend a meeting to end the war in Gaza, Macron was defiant, blaming his rivals for destabilising France and saying he had no plans to step down before his second and final term ends in 2027.

"I ensure continuity and stability, and I will continue to do so," he said, urging people not to forget that the mandate given to the president means "to serve, to serve, and to serve."

On Friday, Macron reappointed Sebastien Lecornu, who had resigned as prime minister earlier in the week. Macron's office announced Lecornu's new cabinet late on Sunday, with many of the top jobs remaining unchanged, despite the prime minister's pledge to name ministers who embody "renewal and diversity."

Both the hard-left "France Unbowed" (LFI) party and the far-right National Rally (RN) filed no-confidence motions on Monday.

Lecornu will face a no-confidence vote most likely on Thursday. It's unclear if he has the votes needed to survive, as the Socialists - whose support he will almost certainly need to fight on - are keeping their options open.

The Socialists want Lecornu to repeal Macron's pension reform and roll out a billionaires tax, measures the right outright rejects.

"There will be no censure if the prime minister commits to abandoning Article 49.3 and suspending the pension reform," Socialist lawmaker Philippe Brun told Reuters, referring to the constitutional tool used to ram legislation through parliament without a vote, and echoing remarks by the party's secretary Olivier Faure on Sunday.

Lecornu, already France's shortest serving prime minister with a first term that lasted just 27 days, has not ruled out resigning again if he cannot fulfill his mission.

RN party president Jordan Bardella, asked on TF1 TV whether he would support a motion by the hard-left, said: "I'm not a sectarian ... I believe that France's interest today is to ensure that Emmanuel Macron is stopped in his tracks".

BUDGET PRESSURE

The newly appointed cabinet meets for a first time on Monday afternoon and must present a budget by Wednesday.

France has the euro zone's largest deficit, and Macron has tasked a string of prime ministers with passing slimmed-down budgets.

Michel Barnier was the first to try, but he was toppled by parliament last December for his proposed budget cuts to the 2025 budget. His successor, Francois Bayrou managed to get the 2025 legislation over the line, but he was ousted last month over his proposals for the 2026 budget.

"The political forces that decided to vote against Francois Bayrou and the political forces that sought to destabilise Sebastien Lecornu are solely responsible for this mess," Macron said.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Alessandro Parodi and Elizabeth Pineau; editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Ros Russell)