PARIS, Oct 11, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Sebastien Lecornu, whom Emmanuel Macron reappointed as French premier on Friday after resigning only four days before, is a loyal ally of the president who prides himself behind-the-scenes negotiation skills and discretion, and with ambition to be head of state.

Lecornu, 39, is one of few politicians who have been with Macron without a break since the centrist rose to the presidency in 2017.

Defence minister for over three years throughout almost all of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he extols values that have a military ring: loyalty, valour and duty.

"I accept -- out of duty -- the mission entrusted to me by the president of the republic," he wrote on X on Friday, in typical style, after his reappointment.

He took an almost impossible task from Macron when the president appointed him prime minister in September.

Lecornu resigned less than a month later, saying the "conditions were not fulfilled" to remain in the post.

But Macron then gave him two days to thrash out a compromise, and on Wednesday evening the usually publicity-shy Lecornu appeared on French television's prime-time evening news to announce there would be no new elections for now and a new premier would be named.

"I am a monk warrior," he said. "This evening, my mission is complete."

His assured, sober and straightforward performance impressed viewers frustrated after days of political theatre.

Lecornu made clear he was not eager to be given the job again, saying he was "not running after" the post, but did not explicitly rule out being reappointed.

"Sebastien says he doesn't want to be reappointed, but he has no political clout. He'll do what the president asks," said a person close to Macron, asking not to be named.

- No presidential ambition -

Lecornu consistently made clear his support for Ukraine as defence minister while successfully expanding the military budget, yet carefully remaining in the shadows with infrequent media appearances.

One of his key assets for Macron was that he is not what is known in France as "presidentiable" -- namely someone who harbours ambitions of winning the Elysee Palace for themselves.

In his interview with French television Wednesday he said there should be no-one in the cabinet eyeing a run in the 2027 presidential elections.

"One must always put country before party," he said in his resignation speech earlier this week, criticising the "partisan appetites" of those who brought down his cabinet.

Even his opponents applauded the manner in which he had given way at the time, with Socialist leader Olivier Faure saying he had resigned with "dignity and honour".

Lecornu is "a loyal soldier who doesn't have too much charisma or presidential potential", one ministerial adviser told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A career politician, Lecornu started out as a parliamentary assistant aged just 19. He had held ministerial posts ever since Macron came to power in 2017 and was promoted to defence minister in May 2022.

Interested in politics from an early age, Lecornu's ascent began with the conservative UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

He became France's youngest-ever ministerial adviser in 2008, joining Bruno Le Maire -- later Macron's long-serving finance minister -- on the Europe brief.

Ironically, the appointment of Le Maire as his defence minister sparked the wave of anger from the right that precipitated his downfall as premier earlier this month. Le Maire is seen by many as the incarnation of Macron's budgetary policies.

A graduate in public law rather than the elite administration or business institutions that traditionally shape top French leaders, Lecornu has made sure to keep up his local roots.

In 2015, he was the youngest-ever regional president of a French department, Eure in Normandy, after serving as mayor of his hometown Vernon.

He reached ministerial rank at 31, covering portfolios including the environment and overseas territories before landing at defence.