President Emmanuel Macron on Monday accepted France’s Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu’s resignation, the Elysee Palace said, plunging the European nation further into political deadlock, Daily Mail reports.
The resignation of France’s Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu came just hours after he appointed his new cabinet, according to the report by Daily Mail.
After weeks of consultations with political parties across the board, France’s Prime Minister Sebastian Lecornu, a close ally of Macron, on Sunday appointed his ministers, and the cabinet had been set to hold its first meeting on Monday afternoon.
But the new cabinet line-up had angered opponents and allies alike, who either found it too rightwing or not enough, raising questions on how long it could last, at a time when France is already mired deep in political crisis, with no group holding a majority in a fragmented parliament.
Lecornu handed his resignation to Macron on Monday morning.
‘Mr Sebastien Lecornu has submitted the resignation of his Government to the President of the Republic, who has accepted it,’ the Elysee’s press office said.
French politics has become increasingly unstable since Macron’s re-election in 2022 for want of any party or grouping holding a parliamentary majority.
Macron’s decision to call a snap parliamentary election last year deepened the crisis by producing an even more fragmented parliament.
Lecornu, who was only appointed last month, was Macron’s fifth prime minister in two years following the toppling of François Bayrou and his government in a confidence vote.
Bayrou gambled that lawmakers would back his view that France must slash public spending to rein in its huge debts. Instead, they seized on the vote to gang up against the 74-year-old centrist who was appointed by Macron last December.
He had wanted to cut the equivalent of some £35billion from public spending – with national debt currently sitting at 114 per cent of GDP. And he specifically wanted to cut two public holidays, and freeze pensions and welfare payments, while making thousands of civil servants unemployed.
Bayrou officially submitted his resignation in September after lasting just nine months in office.
Major rioting then swept across France less than 24-hoursafter Macron appointed Lecornu.
The chaos was all linked to a ‘Block Everything’ campaign ultimately aimed at forcing Macron to resign.
As the violence intensified, Bruno Retailleau, the Interior Minister in the outgoing government, said: ‘This is not a citizens’ movement in any way.
‘It’s been hijacked by the ultra-Left, and some are determined to carry out violent actions. There is an insurrectional mood.’
‘Everyone is sick of Macron, and his government,’ said Nicolas, a 19-year-old student involved in a Paris protest at the time.
‘The new prime minister will be as useless as the last one.’
There is no centralised leadership to ‘Block Everything’ – making it similar to the infamous but hugely effective Yellow Vest (Gilets Jaunes) movement.
The protest movement was social media based, and supported by the CGT (Confederation of General Workers), the largest trade union in the country.
Lecornu became the youngest defense minister in French history and architect of a major military buildup through 2030, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A former conservative who joined Macron’s centrist movement in 2017, he has held posts in local governments, overseas territories and during the president’s yellow vest ‘great debate,’ where he helped manage mass anger with dialogue.
He also offered talks on autonomy during unrest in Guadeloupe in 2021.
One of his key assets for Macron was that he was not what is known in France as ‘presidentiable’, namely someone who harbours ambitions of winning the Elysee Palace for themselves.
Lecornu is ‘a loyal soldier who doesn’t have too much charisma or presidential potential,’ one ministerial adviser told AFP on condition of anonymity last month.