The "rupture" proclaimed on Wednesday, September 10, by Sébastien Lecornu, is above all a matter of discretion. The new prime minister, intent on hearing out the grievances of political and labor leaders before revealing his plans, has said little publicly. Yet his first steps at Matignon (the prime minister's office) already underscore the difficulty he faces in rebuilding trust with parties and unions in order to push through a compromise budget by the December 31 deadline.

The CFDT trade union announced it would reject any reopening of the "conclave" on pensions, an option Lecornu floated on Wednesday before Matignon walked it back the next day. Burned by the intransigence of François Bayrou and the Medef employers' group, the union is demanding suspension of the 2023 pension reform, which raised the retirement age to 64. "You don't build solid solutions on a foundation as fragile as a conclave that already failed," the CFDT said in a statement. Meanwhile, opposition forces on the left and the far right are threatening to vote a motion of no confidence and even impeachment against an executive that appears to be continuing as before, while promising major changes "in form" as well as "in substance."

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