France’s Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has resigned, less than 24 hours after unveiling his new cabinet. “The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry on as prime minister,” Lecornu said on Monday morning, criticising political parties for their unwillingness to compromise.
The Elysée Palace confirmed the resignation following a one-hour meeting between Lecornu and President Emmanuel Macron on Monday morning.
The move comes only 26 days after Lecornu was appointed, following the collapse of François Bayrou’s government.
Lecornu’s cabinet faced sharp criticism from parties across the National Assembly, which largely mirrored Bayrou’s previous lineup. Some threatened to reject it outright.
Several parties are now calling for early elections, while some are demanding Macron step down, though the president has repeatedly said he will serve until his term ends in 2027.
“The only wise thing to do now is to hold elections,” said Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally (RN).
“The joke’s gone on long enough. French people are fed up. Macron has put the country in an extremely difficult position,” she added.
With Lecornu’s resignation, the next steps fall to Macron, who must now weigh how long this political deadlock can continue.
He has three options: appoint another prime minister, dissolve the National Assembly, or resign himself. The last option is considered highly unlikely, leaving the first as the most natural choice.
But who could Macron appoint now? Lecornu, a staunch loyalist, was seen as a last resort, but even he could not secure support.
A Socialist appointment could give the left a chance at government, but such an administration would likely be short-lived. This leaves legislative elections as the most probable route.
New elections would almost certainly be disastrous for Macron’s centrist supporters, while offering a major opportunity for Marine Le Pen’s hard-right faction. Yet with few alternatives, options are limited.
Lecornu, who previously served as armed forces minister, became France’s fifth prime minister in under two years.
In a brief statement outside the Hôtel de Matignon, which he had occupied for less than a month, Lecornu criticised the “partisan appetites” of political factions, saying they “are all behaving as if they had an absolute majority.”
“I was ready for compromise but all parties wanted the other party to adopt their programmes in their entirety,” he added.
“It wouldn’t need much for this to work,” he said, noting that parties must show humility and “to cast some egos aside.”
Political instability in France has been mounting since July 2024, when Macron called snap parliamentary elections to try to secure a clear majority after his party suffered losses in the European Parliament vote.
The elections instead resulted in a hung parliament, divided among ideologically opposed factions unwilling to cooperate.
This division has made it increasingly difficult for prime ministers to pass legislation.
Michel Barnier was appointed last September but was ousted within three months. François Bayrou, his successor, lasted nine months before parliament rejected his austerity budget, which sought to cut government spending by €44bn ($51bn; £38bn).
France’s deficit hit 5.8% of GDP in 2024, with national debt reaching 114% of GDP, the third highest in the eurozone after Greece and Italy, equivalent to nearly €50,000 per citizen.
Following Lecornu’s resignation, shares on the Paris stock exchange fell sharply on Monday morning.
