Macron asks PM to stay on for 48 hours in last effort to defuse crisis

Hours after France's new prime minister resigned less than a month after he was appointed, Emmanuel Macron has asked him to stay on for two more days in a last-ditch effort to chart a way out of the country's rapidly deepening political crisis.

- Angelique Chrisafis Nîmes Jon Henley Paris

The French president yesterday evening gave Sébastien Lecornu who had earlier become the third prime minister of the EU's second-biggest economy to quit within a year - 48 hours to "conduct final negotiations... to define a platform for action and stability".

Lecornu said he would inform Macron by tomorrow evening "whether this is possible or not". Government sources told French media Macron would "assume his responsibilities" if the effort failed.

Yesterday morning Lecornu made what he called a "spontaneous" speech on the steps of the prime minister's residence in Paris, appearing to blame his resignation on opposition political parties in France, whom he said had not wanted to compromise.

Criticising political "egos", he said parties continued to behave with "partisan appetites". He said he had been "ready to compromise, but each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire programme".

The former defence minister, the shortest-lived premier in modern French history, insisted that he had worked for weeks to forge a viable path forward.