This story has been updated from a profile published Sept. 4.

PARIS — Sébastien Lecornu was waiting in the wings for some time. Now his moment has finally arrived.

French President Emmanuel Macron tapped the discreet armed forces minister as the country’s next premier on Tuesday evening, after François Bayrou was resoundingly defeated in a confidence vote Monday.

The 39-year-old politician is the only minister to have remained in government since Macron was first elected in 2017, outlasting countless reshuffles and a snap election.

“He succeeded rather well in Macron’s world,” said a parliament official who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “He has a bit of a survivor side.”

Over the past seven years, Lecornu has established his credentials as a loyal Macron ally, honing a political style that chimes well that of the president — in particular his engagement with local-level politics. Alongside his government role, Lecornu serves as a councilor in his home district of Normandy, where he spends most weekends.

The minister keeps a low public profile, revealing little about his personal life and maintaining a somber outward-facing persona. He has also denied he’s eyeing up the premiership — other contenders include his longtime friend and ally Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, Labor and Health Minister Catherine Vautrin and Economy Minister Éric Lombard.

Behind closed doors, however, Lecornu is much more lively — and France’s power circles widely regard him as a smooth political operator. “In a debate, you can ask him the same question three times, he knows how not to answer [when he doesn’t want to] while still giving you the impression he’s a good listener,” said a senator from an opposition party, describing him as “incredibly skillful.”

At 19, Lecornu started his political career as France’s youngest parliamentary assistant. Originally a member of the conservative Les Républicains party, he has worked to gain respect from across the political aisle — from securing the trust of both Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron to hosting somewhat controversial dinners with far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Maintaining that appeal is made easier by the broad consensus in France on the need to make the country’s armed forces stronger and better equipped for high-intensity warfare.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Lecornu — himself a reservist in the National Gendarmerie — has also become the face of France’s military buildup. In 2023 he shepherded the parliamentary vote on a new military planning law that foresaw €413 billion in defense spending from 2024 to 2030. His dog Tiga runs freely in the corridors of the armed forces ministry.

Lecornu has close ties with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius, another defense minister who survived a snap election.

Yet while he thrives in building bilateral, personal relationships, the Frenchman is less at ease in multilateral settings, including EU foreign affairs and defense meetings in Brussels, which he skips more often than not. Last year, former Prime Minister Michel Barnier reportedly told him to show up more often in the de facto EU capital.

“He is not very European in his way of thinking,” said one industry official.

An ardent backer of French sovereignty, Lecornu has sometimes expressed wariness of EU institutions, especially the European Commission. He frequently name-checks Fifth Republic architect Charles de Gaulle in his speeches — and de Gaulle’s own armed forces minister, Pierre Messmer.

Part of the minister’s legacy is already written, the parliamentary official mentioned above said. “The image he wants to leave behind — and will leave behind — is that he’s the face of France’s rearmament.”