PARIS — France’s new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu vowed to work hard alongside opposition parties to save the country from the budget crisis on the horizon in his first public address after taking the reins of government.

“I want to tell the French: We will get there,” Lecornu said from his new office’s doorstep at the official handover ceremony alongside the outgoing head of government, François Bayrou.

Lecornu, one of President Emmanuel Macron’s most faithful lieutenants, will now try his hand at passing a budget through a deadlocked parliament that took down his previous two predecessors. Bayrou lost his job Monday after lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected his plan to slash next year’s budget by €43.8 billion, which he warned was vital to course-correct a “life-threatening” level of debt.  

The polished and savvy former armed forces minister is kicking off his tenure with an effort to rebuild trust with the general public amid widespread anger over the political dysfunction that followed last year’s snap election. Lecornu’s first day coincided with nationwide protests aimed at bringing France to a standstill, and his handover ceremony took place as demonstrators faced off with riot police outside Gare du Nord, Europe’s busiest train station.

“We need to reassure people, give them a bit of hope,” said an official from Lecornu’s team who was not authorized to speak publicly. According to that same official, Lecornu will meet Wednesday afternoon with parties from the outgoing coalition. Talks with opposition parties will happen next on an unspecified date.

To pass his own 2026 budget, Lecornu is expected to try to consolidate and expand an already fragile coalition between Macron’s centrist camp and conservative party Les Républicains, which were both represented in the outgoing government.

The 39-year-old premier said his team needs to be “more technical, more serious in the way we work with opposition parties,” warning that the situation required the political class to break away from past habits, “both on form and substance.” 

Macron said in off-the-record comments obtained by POLITICO that he was leaning strongly in favor of his new prime minister clinching a deal with the most moderate parties on the left end of the political spectrum, though none may be willing to hand the embattled president a lifeline.

The president also ruled out working with far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has played an instrumental role in bringing down Macron’s last two prime ministers.

“Marine Le Pen wants to throw us out,” he said in the same private remarks.

The Socialists are seen as the most likely to play ball, partly because they would almost certainly lose ground in a new election that would become inevitable at some point if governments keep collapsing.  

Possible concessions to the left could include backpedaling on plans to slash two bank holidays, a proposal equally unpopular within the far right and the left, the president hinted in the same comments. 

Socialist leader Olivier Faure said Tuesday his party wouldn’t join the new government but signaled openness to negotiations on the budget. He said the party would push for less drastic cuts to rein in France’s high budget deficit.

“I never turn down opportunities to discuss,” he told broadcaster Franceinfo. “If I get the feeling that we are being strung along … then we will topple the government.”

Giorgio Leali contributed to this report.