by Lorenzo Rossi
Sébastien Lecornu, appointed on 9 September by Emmanuel Macron new French Prime Minister, could have taken a very different way from the one that led him to Matignon. As a teenager, in fact, the young Norman had caressed the idea of entering a Benedictine monastery.
The touched vocation
Growing up between Catholic teaching desks-he graduated from Saint-Adjutor high school in Vernon, in the Eure-Lecornu wondered about the religious vocation at only 16 years old, during a period of discernment. He told him discreetly last October in the program The Époque! On France 2, stuck by the journalist Léa Salamé: “In a moment of my life, at sixteen, I reflected in the vocation next to the Benedictine monks”, admitted, while adding: “I don’t like talking about it, but it’s true”.
The Abbey of Saint-Wandrille
That inner journey took place at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Wandrille, near Rouen, founded in the seventh century and linked to the Solesmes congregation. Second Les échosLecornu remains linked to that place, which he visits every year. It was hit, they tell, even by the gesture with which the monks greet each other, front against the front. Not surprisingly, among the nicknames that accompany him there is that of “monk-solved” of President Macron.
From local politics to government
Alongside this spiritual dimension, however, there was also the passion for politics and attraction for the military career in Saint-Cyr. Lecornu chose the first road: at 16 he entered the Umpo and 19 he was already parliamentary assistant. Since then his ascent has been rapid: Mayor of Vernon at 28 years old, president of the Departmental Council of the Aure the following year, then entry to the government in 2017, after the election of Macron, as secretary of state to the ecological transition. Then the passages as Minister of Territorial community, of the Oltremare and finally of the Armed Forces. Always with the low profile of those who do not like to speak too much about their private life, nor of their spirituality, but with a determination that led him to just 39 to become a premier, happening to François Bayrou. As a defense minister, it cannot be said that he was inspired by San Benedetto. Lecornu presented one Military programming law (LPM) for the period 2024–2030, which provides for a Download the military budget French, intended to strengthen nuclear dissuasion, to finance the construction of a new aircraft carrier and to increase the effective of the armed forces. Furthermore, it emerged that Lecornu was “the architect of an ambitious rearmament plan” by about 413 billion euroswith the aim of strengthening the European defense in response to the war in Ukraine
