In a stunning turn of events, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu abruptly resigned on Monday, less than 24 hours after unveiling his new cabinet. This sudden departure marks his administration as the shortest-lived in modern French history, sending shockwaves across the nation.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office confirmed Mr. Lecornu’s resignation in a terse, one-sentence statement. The move came amidst significant unrest over the composition of his recently formed cabinet, which represented an uneasy alliance of centrist and conservative factions.
This unexpected resignation has intensified demands from both left-wing and far-right opposition parties, who are now pressuring President Macron to call immediate snap parliamentary elections.
Mr. Lecornu, a close confidant of Mr. Macron, had only been appointed prime minister less than a month prior. His departure makes him the third prime minister to step down in under a year, highlighting a period of nearly unprecedented political instability in contemporary France.
During a televised address on Monday, Mr. Lecornu explained his decision, stating he had “attempted to create the conditions necessary to adopt a budget for France” and “address a few urgent issues that cannot wait until 2027,” the year France’s next presidential elections are slated. However, he concluded, “the conditions were no longer met for me to fulfill the duties of prime minister.”
A major underlying concern for Mr. Lecornu’s resignation was the looming challenge of passing a budget by the end of 2025 to address France’s escalating national debt and deficit. Following snap elections in 2024, which President Macron controversially called, France’s lower house of Parliament remains deeply divided. It’s split between various left-wing parties, a fragile center-right coalition, and a formidable nationalist, anti-immigrant far-right bloc.
With no single party holding a working majority, Mr. Lecornu had, in a risky maneuver last week, announced his intention not to invoke a special constitutional power. This prerogative, often utilized by his predecessors, allows a government to push through a spending bill without a full parliamentary vote. His gamble aimed to prevent his government from collapsing even before budget deliberations could properly begin.
Nevertheless, in his Monday speech, Mr. Lecornu criticized France’s political parties for failing to engage in meaningful parliamentary debate. He attributed his failure to “partisan appetites,” implying that many politicians were more focused on positioning themselves for the 2027 elections. He lamented that the absence of genuine cross-party negotiation had ultimately doomed his premiership.
“Political parties continue to behave as though they each command an absolute majority in the National Assembly,” Mr. Lecornu stated, referring to France’s lower legislative chamber. “I was prepared to compromise, but every political party insists on the adoption of its entire agenda.”
Conversely, opposition parties place the blame squarely on President Macron. They argue that he has steadfastly refused to appoint a prime minister and cabinet willing to deviate from his pro-business policies, despite his centrist alliance suffering significant losses in the snap elections.
Jordan Bardella, president of the nationalist, anti-immigrant National Rally party, reacted to the news live on television, directly blaming Mr. Macron for the ongoing political unrest in France. He claimed the president had “retreated to his last remaining supporters.”
“There can be no return to stability without a return to the ballot box,” Bardella emphatically declared, calling for fresh elections.
While France’s deep political divisions since the snap elections provided the broader context for Mr. Lecornu’s departure, the immediate spark was a sudden surge of indignation from conservative members within his own governing coalition.
The Republicans, France’s traditional mainstream conservative party, expressed particular outrage over the appointment of Bruno Le Maire as defense minister. Le Maire, a veteran centrist, had previously served as economy and finance minister from 2017 to 2024.
Mr. Le Maire is widely criticized by Macron’s opponents for contributing to France’s deteriorating economic situation, stemming from what many viewed as excessively generous government spending policies during the coronavirus pandemic.
Just hours after the cabinet announcement, Bruno Retailleau, the interior minister and leader of France’s conservative party, had already voiced that it “did not reflect the expected break” from past policies. He had scheduled a party meeting for Monday morning to deliberate whether the conservatives should even remain part of the new cabinet.
Mr. Lecornu’s resignation immediately sent jitters through financial markets on Monday. Investors quickly reacted to the renewed uncertainty facing the European Union’s second-largest economy. Mr. Lecornu had been scheduled to present a new national budget just the following day.
As a result, the CAC 40 stock index experienced a 2 percent slump. Furthermore, the spread between French and German debt, a key indicator of investor confidence in France’s financial stability, widened to a near-record high.