French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu faces a race against time to form a government by Monday's budget deadline, as divisions emerged within the conservative Les Republicains party over whether to accept ministerial posts in his cabinet.
Just two days after being reappointed, Lecornu must present a draft budget bill to cabinet and parliament on Monday, requiring key ministerial positions to be filled immediately during France's deepest political crisis in decades.
The LR party's governing body said on Saturday that "the trust and conditions are not in place" to join Lecornu's government, yet a majority of the party's lower house members favour taking cabinet positions to influence the budget, according to Le Monde newspaper.
PENSION REFORM A RED LINE FOR LEFT AND RIGHT
Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, a prominent LR figure and member of the lower house, laid out strict conditions for potential participation of his party in the government, including maintaining President Emmanuel Macron's controversial pension reform that raised the retirement age to 64.
"Our support must remain demanding and faithful to the battles we are waging for the French," Barnier wrote on X on Saturday, listing deficit reduction, pension reform maintenance, security measures and business competitiveness as non-negotiable conditions.
Centrist party UDI said it would support the new government but ruled out taking part in it, while Horizons, a close ally of Macron’s party in parliament, said it would not join a cabinet that backed suspending the pension reform.
PM MUST COME UP WITH BUDGET PLAN TO REDUCE DEFICIT
Lecornu signalled potential flexibility on this issue on Saturday, saying "all debates are possible as long as they are realistic" when asked about suspending the pension reform.
The prime minister must navigate these contradictory demands while assembling a cabinet capable of presenting a credible budget plan to reduce France's deficit from 5.4% of GDP this year to between 4.7% and 5% next year.
"I am setting myself a fairly clear mission, and then either the political forces will help me and we will work together to achieve it, or they will not," Lecornu said on Saturday.
Lecornu has pledged a cabinet of "renewal and diversity" but has yet to announce any appointments with barely 24 hours remaining before the constitutional deadline.
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As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained low on Thursday, as Iran reiterated that it will neither enter into new negotiations with the United States nor re-open the Strait as long as its conditions are not met, despite recent indirect talks in New York mediated by Qatar.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on Wednesday, as Washington pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine and Kyiv and Moscow continue to strike energy infrastructure.
U.S. President Donald Trump said his team held a three-hour meeting with an Iranian delegation in New York that he described as “very good” and “productive”, with another round of talks scheduled soon.
The 81st UN General Assembly continues in New York on Wednesday, with another day of high-level speeches and diplomatic meetings. The wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, global security and international cooperation remain at the centre of discussions.
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
The 81st UN General Assembly returns for its third day in New York on Thursday, with world leaders delivering high-level speeches and holding diplomatic meetings. Restoring trust, managing global transformation, peace and security, and international cooperation remain at the centre of discussions.
Australia says an OpenAI AI agent gained unauthorised access to a government Medicare statistics portal in June, in what officials say could be an unprecedented case of an AI system breaching a government network.
Pakistan says it carried out air strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan on Thursday, targeting sites it said were used to store and launch drones, as tensions between the two neighbouring countries continued to escalate.
Here’s your AnewZ Daily Brief for 24 September 2026, with five key developments from the second day of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
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