France has been thrown deeper into political uncertainty after Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu abruptly resigned on Monday, only 27 days into the job.
President Emmanuel Macron accepted his ally’s resignation, the Elysee confirmed, describing the move as both sudden and unprecedented in modern French politics.
Lecornu’s departure came barely a day after he unveiled his cabinet, which had been scheduled to meet for the first time on Monday afternoon. The line-up, however, drew swift criticism from across the political spectrum. Some accused it of leaning too far to the right, while others argued it did not go far enough, signs of the difficulty of governing a fractured parliament where no party holds a clear majority.
“I was ready to compromise, but each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire program,” Lecornu, 39, said in a resignation statement delivered in the courtyard of Matignon Palace, the prime minister’s official residence.
“Political parties in France are all behaving as if they had their own majority in parliament.”
Lecornu, the seventh prime minister named by Macron and the fifth in just two years, had only hours earlier expressed confidence in his government. His decision to step down underscores the instability that has gripped France since Macron’s re-election in 2022. The president’s gamble on a snap election last year only worsened the deadlock, producing an even more divided parliament.
Opposition leaders wasted no time in seizing on the crisis. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the far-left France Unbowed demanded Macron’s impeachment, while the far-right National Rally urged the president to either call fresh elections or resign.
