Macron re-appoints Le Cornu as prime minister

French President Emmanuel Macron has re-appointed Sebastien Le Cornu as prime minister and tasked him with forming a cabinet, Macron's office announced, quoted by the agencies, BTA reported.

The deadline that the French leader himself had announced for choosing a new prime minister expired tonight, without announcing the name of a new candidate for the post.

Le Cornu resigned as prime minister just days ago. Macron hopes that his loyalist Le Corneille will be able to muster enough support in the highly fragmented parliament to push through next year's budget, the agencies note.

By reappointing the same figure as prime minister, the 47-year-old president risks provoking strong discontent from his political rivals, who believe that the best way for France to emerge from its deepest political crisis in decades is for Macron to either call early elections or resign.

Le Corneille's most immediate task will be to submit a draft budget to parliament by the end of the day on Monday.

"I accept – out of a sense of duty – "the task entrusted to me by the President of the Republic to do everything possible so that by the end of the year France will have a budget and that we can solve the daily problems that concern our compatriots," Lecornu wrote in Aix. "We must put an end to this political crisis that is causing irritation among the French people and to this instability that is damaging the image and interests of France."