French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigns after less than a month

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned, less than a day after the unveiling of his cabinet.

“The conditions have not been met for me to continue as Prime Minister,” said Lecornu on Monday morning, and criticized the reluctance of political parties to achieve compromises.

The Elysée Palace made this announcement after Lecornu met President Emmanuel Macron for an hour on Monday morning.

The shock decision only occurs 26 days that Lecornu was appointed Prime Minister following the collapse of the previous government of François Bayrou.

The parties at all levels of the National Assembly had fiercely criticized the composition of the Lecornu cabinet, which was largely unchanged from Bayrou, and threatened to vote it.

Several parties now demand the first elections, some calling for Macron to resign – although he has always said that he would not be held down before the end of his mandate in 2027.

“The only wise thing to do now is to keep elections,” said Marine Le Pen of the far -right National Rally (RN).

“The joke went long. The French are fed up. Macron put the country in an extremely difficult position,” she added.

LECornu – The former Minister of the Armed Forces and Loyalist of Macron – was the fifth French Prime Minister in less than two years.

In his brief speech outside the Hôtel de Matignon, the Prime Minister’s residence he only occupied for less than a month, Lecornu has greatly criticized the “partisan appetites” of political factions, which, according to him, all behaved as if they had an absolute majority “.

“I was ready to be compromised, but all the parties wanted the other party to adopt their full programs,” he said.

“He wouldn’t need much to make it work,” he added, saying that the parts had to be more humble and “to throw some ego aside”.

French policy has been very unstable since July 2024, when the SNAP parliamentary elections have resulted in a suspended parliament.

It made it difficult to collect the support necessary to adopt bills.

The Bayrou government was elected in September after Parliament refused to support its austerity budget, which aimed to reduce public spending by 44 billion euros ($ 51 billion; £ 38 billion).

The French deficit reached 5.8% of GDP in 2024 and its national debt represents 114% of GDP. This is the third highest public debt in the euro zone after Greece and Italy, and equivalent to nearly € 50,000 per French citizen.

The shares fell sharply on the Paris Stock Exchange after the news of Lecornu’s resignation broke out on Monday morning.