Macron in danger as ally PM quits after just 27 days

France has lost its fourth prime minister in 12 months, after Sebastien Lecornu handed in his resignation yesterday just hours after announcing his cabinet.

- JAMES C. REYNOLDS TAZ ALI

The swift and unexpected departure of Mr Lecornu after 27 days in the role will spell a major deepening of France’s political crisis, piling pressure on president Emmanuel Macron to call a snap parliamentary election.

“One cannot be prime minister when the conditions are not met,” Mr Lecornu said in a short speech after his resignation, taking aim at the “egos” of opposition politicians who stuck to their manifestos as members of his own minority coalition focused on their presidential ambitions.

“It wouldn’t take much for things to work out,” the outgoing prime minister said, suggesting opposition leaders were more open to compromise in private discussions than public statements would let on.

But until France’s lawmakers can find common ground on how to tackle the country’s most pressing issues, Mr Macron’s position atop French politics looks precarious, and public frustrations will only grow.

Why did Lecornu resign?

The decision to resign was unexpected. For weeks, Mr Lecornu had tried to avoid the pitfalls of his predecessors, scrambling to find common ground with an increasingly divided parliament.

Mr Lecornu - the fifth prime minister in two years – was tasked with passing a restrained budget and bringing a sense of stability back to France’s politics. Instead, he leaves the country in chaos.

Gregoire Roos, programme director for Europe and Russia, Chatham House, told The Independent, “the past 12 hours have triggered one of the deepest and frighteningly chaotic institutional crises in postwar France”.

France’s political issues have seen support dwindle for Mr Macron’s brand of centrism, while the fringes on the hard left and hard right have gained support.