French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his government resigned on Monday, mere hours after the head of government named members of his cabinet, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a statement. According to Politico Brussels, the government lasted less than 12 hours, making it the fastest resignation of a cabinet in the history of the Fifth Republic.
The collapse of the Lecornu government marks the third resignation since the snap election held in July 2024. Macron called the election immediately after the European elections in June 2024; however, the results produced no governing majority. Since then, France’s political crisis has deepened, with parliament repeatedly toppling successive administrations over the budget. Lecornu was the fifth prime minister appointed by Macron in about two years. Almost exactly one month ago, MPs passed a vote of no confidence against former Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government.
Interestingly, Lecornu’s short-lived cabinet has now overtaken Michel Barnier’s—appointed by Macron in September 2024 and forced to resign in December—as the fastest to collapse in modern French history.
Right-wing opposition party National Rally (RN) immediately called on Macron to hold another snap election following Lecornu’s resignation on Monday. RN, led by Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen—who was barred from running for the presidency in 2027 after a controversial trial—is currently the largest party in the country, polling at 34 per cent, according to a September Ifop poll. RN is followed by the leftist coalition NFP at 24 per cent, while Macron’s Ensemble is third at 14 per cent—a decline of six points since the 2024 elections.
French citizens are similarly dissatisfied with Macron’s performance: according to Ifop, 77 per cent disapprove of his actions. Macron has only just regained the legal right to call another snap election in July, as French law allows such a move once per year.
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