France PM resigns less than a month after taking office

New Delhi, Oct 6: France’s Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned on Monday, less than 24 hours after unveiling his cabinet, plunging the country back into political turmoil, BBC reported.

“The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry on as prime minister,” Lecornu said in a brief statement outside the Hôtel de Matignon, accusing rival parties of refusing to compromise. “I was ready for dialogue, but each party wanted the others to adopt their programmes in full,” he added, calling for “humility” and an end to “partisan appetites.”

The Elysée Palace confirmed the resignation after Lecornu met President Emmanuel Macron for an hour on Monday morning. His sudden departure comes just 26 days after he was appointed to replace François Bayrou, whose government collapsed last month following the rejection of its €44bn austerity budget. Lecornu’s cabinet, largely unchanged from Bayrou’s, faced immediate backlash in the National Assembly, where parties across the spectrum threatened to vote it down. France has been mired in political instability since snap elections in July 2024 produced a hung parliament, leaving successive governments unable to pass key legislation.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), demanded immediate elections, saying, “The joke’s gone on long enough. French people are fed up. Macron has put the country in an extremely difficult position.” Lecornu, a close Macron ally and former defence minister, was France’s fifth prime minister in less than two years. His resignation deepens uncertainty over how Macron’s minority government can function until the next scheduled presidential election in 2027.