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L’HAY-LES-ROSES, France: France’s newly re-appointed prime minister acknowledged Saturday that there weren’t "a lot of candidates" for his job — and that he might not last long in the post given the country’s deep political divides.
Sebastien Lecornu, renamed by President Emmanuel Macron late Friday after a week of political chaos, called for calm and for the support of political parties to produce a budget for the European Union’s No. 2 economy before looming deadlines.
His appointment is seen as Macron’s last chance to reinvigorate his second term, which runs until 2027. His centrist camp lacks a majority in the National Assembly and he is facing increasing criticism even within its ranks.
But rivals from far right to far left slammed Macron’s decision to rename Lecornu, France’s fourth prime minister in barely a year. France is struggling with mounting economic challenges and ballooning debt, and the political crisis is aggravating its troubles and raising alarm across the European Union.
“I don’t think there were a lot of candidates,″ Lecornu told reporters Saturday during a visit to a police station in the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses.
Lecornu, who resigned Monday after just a month on the job, said he agreed to come back because of the urgent need to find financial solutions for France. But he said he would only stay as long as ″conditions are met,″ and seemed to acknowledge the risk that he could be brought down in a no-confidence vote by the fractured parliament.
″Either political forces help me and we accompany each other ... or they won’t,″ he said.
He wouldn’t say when he expects to form a new government or who could be in it, but has said it wouldn’t include anyone angling for the 2027 presidential election. He didn’t address opposition demands to scrap a contentious law raising the retirement age.
Over the past year, Macron’s successive minority governments have collapsed in quick succession, leaving France mired in political paralysis as it faces a debt crisis that has worried markets and EU partners, and a growing poverty rate.

NEW YORK: Lawyers for Luigi Mangione asked a New York federal judge Saturday to dismiss some criminal charges, including the only count for which he could face the death penalty, from a federal indictment brought against him in the December assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers said prosecutors should also be prevented from using at trial his statements to law enforcement officers and his backpack where a gun and ammunition were found.
They said Mangione was not read his rights before he was questioned by law enforcement officers, who arrested him after Brian Thompson was fatally shot as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference.
They added that officers did not obtain a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
The killing set off a multi-state search after the suspected shooter slipped away from the scene and rode a bike to Central Park, before taking a taxi to a bus depot that offers service to several nearby states.
Five days later, a tip from a McDonald’s about 233 miles (375 kilometers) away in Altoona, Pennsylvania, led police to arrest Mangione. He has been held without bail since then.
Last month, lawyers for Mangione asked that his federal charges be dismissed and the death penalty be taken off the table as a result of public comments by US Attorney General Pam Bondi. In April, Bondi directed prosecutors in New York to seek the death penalty, calling the killing of Thompson a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Murder cases are usually tried in state courts, but prosecutors have also charged Mangione under a federal law on murders committed with firearms as part of other “crimes of violence.” It’s the only charge for which Mangione could face the death penalty, since it’s not used in New York state.
The papers filed early Saturday morning argued that this charge should be dismissed because prosecutors have failed to identify the other offenses that would be required to convict him, saying that the alleged other crime — stalking — is not a crime of violence.
The assassination and its aftermath has captured the American imagination, setting off a cascade of resentment and online vitriol toward US health insurers while rattling corporate executives concerned about security.
After the killing, investigators found the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” written in permanent marker on ammunition at the scene. The words mimic a phrase used by insurance industry critics.