France’s newly appointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has been greeting some colleagues with soft temple-to-temple bumps — a gesture that has drawn public attention and prompted journalists to look into a teenage period when he considered joining a Benedictine community.
The 39-year-old former defense minister, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, used the greeting in several encounters after taking office at Matignon, the prime minister’s residence. At a handover ceremony he gave the traditional two-cheeked “bise” to several female colleagues but greeted male ministers and aides with the forehead contact, including outgoing Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and senior presidential aide Patrice Faure. Lecornu has not yet announced his new cabinet.
French media traced the gesture to time Lecornu spent at Saint-Wandrille Abbey in Normandy, a Benedictine community of about 30 monks. The practice, known among Benedictines as an accolade, is a discreet forehead-to-forehead or temple-to-temple contact exchanged as a sign of peace. Jean-Louis Langlois, a civilian volunteer at the abbey, described the contact as a “very beautiful gesture” aligned with monastic customs.
Lecornu acknowledged the episode of youthful discernment in a 2024 interview on the television program Quelle époque !, saying he had a "period of discernment" at about age 16 and that he did not like to speak at length about it because, as a minister, he represents a secular state. "I am a great defender of secularism," he added, while confirming the anecdote was true.
The Benedictine order, founded in the sixth century and governed by the Rule of St. Benedict, observes a variety of ritual and fraternal gestures. Catholic priests also use variations of close, non-contact signs of peace during liturgy, sometimes mimicking a side-to-side air-kiss while avoiding direct contact. Commentators noted that Lecornu’s use of the accolade echoes those traditions but occurs in a secular, political environment where public gestures can prompt scrutiny.
Lecornu had been a relatively low-key figure in national politics before his elevation to the premiership. His comportment and manner of greeting colleagues have become a talking point in France as the new government takes shape, provoking discussion about personal gestures, public roles and the boundaries between private pasts and official duties. Observers say the exchange has been mostly described in neutral terms as an idiosyncratic habit rather than a political statement.
As Lecornu begins his tenure at Matignon, attention on the gesture has joined other immediate tasks, including forming a government and addressing the administration’s policy priorities. The matter illustrates how personal customs can surface quickly in the public sphere when senior officials assume visible roles in France’s secular state.