French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, freshly reappointed late on Friday just days after resigning, faces a race against the clock to deliver a 2026 budget bill by Monday and attempt to sway a fractious parliament, with opponents on the left and the far right already vowing to shoot down his new cabinet.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday re-appointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister, just days after his resignation, asking him to try again to form a government to end the country's political deadlock.

Lecornu's immediate task will be to deliver a budget to parliament by the end of Monday.

October 13 is the hard deadline for Lecornu to 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.

Missing the deadline would leave lawmakers without the 70 days the constitution grants to debate and pass the budget before year-end. The Constitutional Court also requires eight days to review the legislation.

Before he had resigned, Lecornu had already sent a draft to the Haut Conseil des Finances Publiques, France's independent fiscal watchdog, for review as required by law.