The Lecornu government's rapid resignation, after only a few hours of existence, continues to raise questions about its administrative and financial consequences. In a letter addressed to ministerial offices, the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) clarified that not all temporary members of the executive will be eligible for the end-of-service allowance usually paid to ministers. This sum, equivalent to three months' salary (approximately €30,000 gross), is not due to the five new entrants, all MPs, who remained ministers for barely 14 hours.
According to the 1958 ordinance, all members of the government are in principle entitled to compensation upon termination of their duties, unless they resume paid employment before the three-month period expires. However, as the SGG note indicates, since the Lecornu government resigned before the one-month period provided for the incompatibility between the functions of deputy and minister came into force, the members concerned "remain deputies, may sit, and are paid by the National Assembly." In other words, Roland Lescure, Éric Woerth, Naïma Moutchou, Marina Ferrari, and Mathieu Lefèvre will not receive any compensation.
A quick visit, with no lifetime benefits
This government, the shortest-lived of the Fifth Republic, officially existed for less than a day. The ministers, whose appointment decrees were published Sunday evening, therefore received their salaries for a single day, or a few hundred euros gross. However, no "lifetime benefits" are attached to their former positions: official housing, vehicles, and offices cease upon publication of the new government. Only the outgoing Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, retains the right to a secretariat and a company vehicle for a maximum period of ten years, in accordance with the decree he himself signed on September 17 to regulate these privileges.
As for Bruno Le Maire, briefly appointed Minister of the Armed Forces, he announced on X that he would waive any compensation and transfer his responsibilities without delay. A way, for him as for others, to extinguish an embarrassing controversy in a context of unprecedented political crisis, where every euro of public money is now closely scrutinized.
