Sébastien Lecornu, France's prime minister, leaves the Elysée Palace in Paris on Tuesday. Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg/Getty Images
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s government will live to see another day. After a high-stakes policy speech and the unveiling of his draft budget on Tuesday, the Socialist Party (PS) said it would not join efforts to topple the government, handing the 39-year-old premier – reappointed on Friday after resigning just days earlier – a temporary lifeline tied to concessions.
In his address to parliament, Lecornu pledged to suspend French President Emmanuel Macron ’s signature pension reform. That policy would have raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, and its removal was a totemic demand from the left. The prime minister said the suspension would