French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has survived two confidence motions, just days after he appointed his new government in time to submit a draft budget to parliament in a bid to end the political turmoil that has gripped the country for months.A motion sponsored by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its allies was defeated on Thursday, receiving the backing of just 144 lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listJust moments before, a motion tabled by far-left France Unbowed gained support from 271 lawmakers, 18 short of the 289 needed for a majority.The votes followed Lecornu’s decision Tuesday to back suspending a divisive 2023 pension reform, in a bid to keep his cabinet afloat long enough to pass the much-needed 2026 austerity budget by the end of this year.The leftist Socialist Party (PS) had threatened to vote to topple the premier if he did not move to freeze the reform that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.After the motions failed to pass, PS lawmaker Laurent Baumel warned that sparing the premier “was in no way a pact” for the future, urging “new concessions” in the looming budget talks.Yael Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly and an ally of Macron, had a more positive outlook following the votes.“I am pleased to see that today there is a majority in the National Assembly that is operating in this spirit: Work, the search for compromise, the best possible effort.”Lecornu, who at the time of his f …
