France's Lecornu sets agenda after budget fight, focuses energy and defense

Sebastien lecornu, the French Prime Minister, has set his agenda for the weekend. He has prioritized energy and defense.

Lecornu, who was appointed as Prime Minister in September, was the result of a two-year budget wrangling that consumed French politics.

"France has a budget which aims to reduce deficit to 5% while not raising taxes. Lecornu stated that few believed this would happen by the fall.

Lecornu reiterated that he was not interested in running for the presidency in 2027, despite his rising popularity.

He said that there would be a minor reshuffle of the cabinet ahead of the local elections in March.

Lecornu has set out his priorities for the next few months.

ENERGY

After more than two-year delays, the prime minister announced that the government's "multi-year" energy program would be signed by decree at the end of the week.

He confirmed that the state-owned EDF would build six new nuclear reactors with an option to add eight more, and that investment in renewable energies - including offshore wind, solar, and?geothermal energy -- would remain "ambitious".

Next, we'll need to look at incentives to accelerate electrification. Our goal is to have 60% of our consumption be electric by 2030.

DEFENCE

Lecornu stated that "an increase in the defence budget (57 Billion Euros or $67.35 Billion), which will double from 2017 to 2027, is necessary... We must continue."

He said that the law on military programming would be updated before Bastille Day, July 14.

DECENTRALISATION

The new international environment and the current state of our finances makes it imperative to refocus on certain tasks. Lecornu stated that it must rely on local public actors more to exercise certain power.

He said that a bill with 50 "simplification measures" would be presented to the parliament before March's local elections.

STATE MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

Lecornu promised to?maintain State Medical Aid (AME), a French scheme of social assistance that primarily covers?the medical expenses of undocumented immigrants -- AME is something the far-right has vowed not to maintain if they come to power in France in 2027.

He announced two decrees for reforming the program: one focused on combating fraud with savings of 180 millions euros and the second on modernising the government IT systems so that all civil servants who are responsible for the scheme can have access. $1 = 0.8463 Euros (Reporting and editing by Elizabeth Pineau; Benoit van Overstraeten, Jean-Stephane Brosse)

(source: Reuters)