A microphone is set up in the courtyard for the statement by French outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu at the Hôtel Matignon in Paris, on October 6, 2025.
Thomas Coex / AFP
A new and sad record has just been set under Emmanuel Macron’s presidency: Sébastien Lecornu’s government lasted less than a day. Announced on the evening of Sunday, October 5th, it came under such immediate, heavy fire that the Prime Minister decided to resign in the early hours of October 6th.
The wait for a new administration seemed endless. Almost a month had passed since Sébastien Lecornu was appointed prime minister following the vote of no confidence that led to the overthrow of his predecessor, François Bayrou, on September 8th, but France remained without a government all throughout this time. After laborious negotiations, the prime minister finally decided to announce a few names from his government team on the evening of October 5th. The result was that his government lasted no more than a few hours. Faced with intense criticism, the prime minister chose to throw in the towel.
Objections came from all sides, describing the cabinet as a “provocation,” a “pathetic” cast.
It must be said that all the ingredients were there to generate maximum discontent. From the moment he took office, labelled as the most loyal of Macron’s supporters, Lecornu failed to convince, achieving one of the lowest popularity ratings ever obtained by a prime minister.
Having announced a “break with the past,” Lecornu found himself, contrary to his promises, reappointing a cohort of 12 outgoing ministers out of 18 nominees to his new team. The “new faces” were notoriously unpopular former ministers, such as Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister who was dismissed in 2024, and is considered largely responsible for the worsening public deficit.
Among the first to react were Lecornu’s right-wing allies in the central bloc, Les Républicains, who made their disapproval known as soon as the first details of the government appeared in the press on the evening of October 5th. Retailleau, the reappointed minister of the interior and president of the party, announced that he wanted to convene a meeting of his party’s executive committee to analyse the question of his political group’s support for the new government, in order to put pressure on the prime minister. The signal was very clear, and Lecornu, sensing the ground slipping away from under his feet, chose to step down. “You can’t be prime minister when the conditions aren’t right,” he told the press.
President Macron accepted Lecornu’s resignation.
One has to go back to the worst hours of the Third and Fourth Republics to find such a degree of institutional deadlock in France. But it is not the institutions that are at fault here, but those who ‘lead’ France. The president of the republic has deliberately created chaos and now refuses to implement the only solution that could bring about the long-awaited break–the dissolution of the National Assembly, if not his own resignation.
Pressure is mounting in favour of dissolution. Jordan Bardella, president of the Rassemblement National, has been hammering home for several weeks that this is the only possible way out of the crisis into which France is sinking:
There can be no return to stability without a return to the polls and the dissolution of the National Assembly,
he said when Lecornu’s resignation was announced.
On the Left, the view is shared. The PS’s spokesman harshly criticised Macronism, which is plunging the country “into chaos.” President of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, called for “immediate consideration” of the motion to impeach Emmanuel Macron, proposed on September 9th, 2022, the day after the fall of the Bayrou government. Marine Le Pen is not this radical in her statements, but she made clear what the right choice would be: “I am not going to call on Emmanuel Macron to resign, but if he decides to do so, it would be wise,” she said earlier, pointing out that the primary objective should be to obtain dissolution. She believes that, in the meantime, Lecornu’s decision was a “wise move.”
As Macron’s ‘centre’ apparently no longer convinces anyone, it remains to be seen which side he must now tip the balance towards in order to hope to remain in power. Through the voice of Minister Retailleau, the LR party has sent a signal that the right must be given greater respect and consideration within the ‘central bloc.’ On the contrary, Macronist Minister for Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher believes that it is not possible to govern without the Left.
The merit of Lecornu’s abrupt decision is that it highlights the impasse created by the endless repetition of the same scenario of a centrist government without direction or vision, with ministers lacking any legitimacy. It is to be hoped that the Élysée Palace will draw all the practical conclusions from this and will not embark once again on the risky construction of a house of cards destined to collapse as soon as it is built.
Incidentally, in these times of budgetary austerity, it is important to realise that the publication of the decree appointing the ministers on the evening of Sunday, October 5th allows the members of the Lecornu government to benefit de facto from their privileges as former ministers, including three months’ salary—despite having been in office for only a few hours. This joke will cost French taxpayers around €500,000.
