PARIS (Realist English). France’s newly appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu resigned on Monday, just hours after naming his cabinet, plunging the country into a deeper political crisis.
The Elysee Palace confirmed the surprise resignation in a brief statement: “Mr. Sebastien Lecornu has submitted the resignation of his government to the President of the Republic, who has accepted it.”
Lecornu’s departure came amid threats from both allies and opponents to bring down his fragile administration. The move — unprecedented in France’s modern history — underscores the growing instability that has gripped French politics since President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election in 2022.
Macron’s gamble on a snap parliamentary election last year backfired, producing an even more fragmented National Assembly with no clear majority. As a result, the president has struggled to pass legislation and has cycled through five prime ministers in just two years. Lecornu, appointed only last month, was the latest casualty of this political gridlock.
Observers say France has not faced a crisis of this magnitude since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958. The constitution, designed to guarantee stability through a strong presidency and cohesive parliamentary support, has instead revealed its fragility in an era of polarization.
Once credited with reshaping French politics, Macron now presides over a deeply divided parliament where the far-right and hard-left dominate debate, and consensus-building — a rare skill in France’s political culture — has proven elusive.
France, long seen as a model of centralized governance, is now confronting a leadership vacuum at the very heart of the Republic.
