Sébastien Lecornu promised on Saturday during his first regional visit to Mâcon (Saône-et-Loire), to build a network of "France Santé" centers by 2027, which will make it possible to offer all French people a healthcare service around 30 minutes from their homes, making this issue a "major national priority."
He hopes that 5,000 "France Santé" houses will be available in 2027, designed on the model of "France Services" houses, which offer a local one-stop shop for various administrative procedures.
The new head of government, who has not provided a cost estimate for this measure, intends to personally manage this project, which he considers a "major national priority." He presented it after a long discussion with caregivers at a departmental health center in Saône-et-Loire.
Sébastien Lecornu thus took a few hours off from the consultations he is actively leading in Paris to try to construct a budget for 2026 that could be adopted by the National Assembly. But he declined to comment on the downgrade of France's debt rating by Fitch on Friday evening.
Himself a local elected official from Eure, where he was mayor, department president and senator, this son of a medical secretary and an aeronautics technician had assured from the evening of his nomination that he "measured the expectations" of his fellow citizens and "the difficulties" they encountered.
– Pressure from the right –
Sébastien Lecornu also has to convince public opinion, as well as political forces, of the merits of his method: finding common ground, particularly on the budget, allowing him to govern without a parliamentary majority.
The leader of the Republicans (LR) and resigning Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, put pressure on the new head of government on Saturday – the third in a year – who is above all seeking to appease the socialists to pass the budget.
The Prime Minister is expected to clarify his priorities in an interview with the regional press, which will be published Saturday evening, as he has been confronted with several social movements since his appointment: on the day he took office, with a mobilization launched on social networks to "block" the country, before another day of demonstrations called by the unions planned for Thursday.
"There is a lot of anger" among employees, said Marylise Léon, general secretary of the CFDT, the country's largest union, after an interview Friday with the new Prime Minister, who told her he was working on a "contribution from the highest incomes" in the 2026 budget.
– High heritage –
The center and right of the government coalition now say they are ready to tax the ultra-rich more heavily, without going as far as introducing the Zucman tax on the highest net worth, a flagship measure promoted by the Socialists and which LR does not want.
Such a measure would in any case mark one of the fundamental "breaks" advocated by Sébastien Lecornu upon his arrival, since it would break the taboo of Macron's tax increases.
Sébastien Lecornu also wants changes in method.
On Thursday, he first brought together – for the first time in a long time – the leaders of the right-wing and centrist parties of the "common core", so that they could agree on some common priorities.
Before the opposition, he consulted with the social partners, meeting with the CFDT and the MEDEF on Friday, before the CGT on Monday. He also plans to meet with the health professions next week, "at the Ministry of Health because that is their home."
In search of a budgetary compromise, the head of government could return to the plan of his predecessor François Bayrou, but without its most controversial measures, such as the elimination of two public holidays.
The possibility of resuming the pensions conclave also appears to have been abandoned. The social partners are refusing to reopen it anyway.
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