Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has decided to invoke Article 49.3 of the Constitution to pass the 2026 state budget. He will officially announce this decision to the assembled ministers at the Élysée Palace, ending the debate between two sensitive options: executive orders or parliamentary approval. The option of executive orders, considered unprecedented and politically risky under the Fifth Republic, has ultimately been rejected.
In recent days, the government has been working extensively on both scenarios. While executive orders appeared less irritating to the public, they posed a major risk to the government's stability. Conversely, Article 49.3 remains unpopular but offers a crucial guarantee to the Prime Minister's office: avoiding an immediate censure. Sébastien Lecornu reportedly made his decision in the middle of last week, after keeping everyone guessing until the very last minute.
According to several government sources, the head of government also convinced Emmanuel Macron argued that invoking Article 49.3 was the "lesser of two evils." The president initially favored executive orders to quickly secure funding for public policies, particularly military ones. However, the risk of having a seventh prime minister fall ultimately tipped the scales, forcing the government to resort to using Article 49.3 again to pass the budget.
