Oct. 6 (UPI) — French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu quit Monday, just 26 days after he was appointed to replace predecessor Francois Bayrou, whose administration fell apart amid a deepening political crisis over budget cuts.
Lecornu’s resignation, which was announced by President Emmanuel Macron’s Elysee Palace, came a day after he named his new cabinet, prompting opposition parties to threaten to bring down the government.
France’s fifth prime minister since the fall of 2023 and the shortest-ever-serving leader was undone by the seemingly intractable problem of trying to pass a budget containing deep, but very unpopular, spending cuts aimed at stemming a ballooning deficit.
Speaking after his resignation, Lecornu said he had been willing to compromise but that the absence of “conditions to remain prime minister” left him no choice.
He placed responsibility for the debacle at the feet of parties “who continue to posture as if they had a majority” and “partisan appetites” of factions within his minority four-way coalition administration eyeing the 2027 presidential election.
Parties stepped up their calls for fresh elections, bringing them forward from 2029, with some demanding Macron’s time was up, too. Macron’s term, his second, runs through 2027.
“Macron needs to choose: dissolution of parliament or resignation,” said National Rally MP Sebastien Chenu, whom Lecornu appointed as one of two vice presidents of the National Assembly in his new administration.
NR leader Jordan Bardella said there would almost certainly be new elections “within weeks” and that the party of Jean-Marie Le Pen and Marine Le Pen would be “ready to govern.”
Marine Le Pen welcomed Lecornu’s decision to quit and urged Macron to dissolve the National Assembly, the lower house.
“We’re at the end of the road, “she said.
The New Popular Front’s Mathilde Panot also called on Macron to step down.
“Three prime ministers defeated in less than a year. The countdown has begun. It is now clear to everyone. Emmanuel Macron must go,” said the president of the left-leaning grouping in parliament in a post on X.
She also urged people to sign a “Destitution Marcon!” petition — the rough English translation of which is “Dismiss Marcon!”
The collapse of yet another administration in Paris hit the markets hard on fears the reforms necessary to balance France’s books will never materialize, sending the benchmark CAC40 index tumbling and government borrowing costs soaring close to 2025 highs.
Unusually, the negative sentiment also spilled over into Europe’s wider financial system, causing the euro to fall against the U.S. dollar by a half percentage point.
