New French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu yesterday resigned after less than a month in office, sinking the country further into a political crisis and piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to find a way out of the deadlock.
Lecornu stepped down just 14 hours after naming his government and had been due to hold his first Cabinet meeting in the afternoon. However, his new government had raised hackles across the spectrum before ministers even entered their new offices and he risked an immediate no confidence vote in parliament this week.
Lecornu’s 27-day stint in office was the shortest ever for a prime minister in modern France.
Photo: Reuters
“The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry out my function as prime minister,” Lecornu said, denouncing the “partisan appetites” of factions who he said had forced his resignation.
With the instability in France causing tremors across Europe, a German government spokesman said a “stable France” was an “important contribution to stability in Europe.”
Lecornu’s resignation compounds a political crisis that has rocked France for more than a year, after Macron called legislative elections last year, which ended in a hung parliament.
Macron has resisted calls to again order snap legislative polls and has also ruled out resigning himself before his mandate ends in 2027. He could also look for a new prime minister who would be the eighth of the president’s mandate, but would face a struggle to survive without radical change.
The 2027 presidential elections are expected to be a historic crossroads in French politics, with the French far right under Marine Le Pen sensing its best ever chance of taking power.
Le Pen said it would be “wise” for Macron to resign, but also urged snap legislative polls as “absolutely necessary.”
Far-right National Rally (RN) President Jordan Bardella said he expected the legislative elections to take place, adding: “The RN will obviously be ready to govern.”
Macron named Lecornu, a 39-year-old former defense minister and close confidant, to the post on Sept. 9.
He had hoped his ally would take the heat out of the domestic crisis and allow him to focus on his efforts on the international stage, including working with the US to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
However, the largely unchanged Cabinet Lecornu unveiled late on Sunday sparked fierce criticism, in particular from the right-wing Republicans who were part of the coalition government.
The Republicans were not going to offer Macron and his allies “a final lap” after the largely unchanged Cabinet, party Vice President Francois-Xavier Bellamy said.
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