President Emmanuel Macron’s difficulties in appointing a new prime minister have prompted political figures on all sides to suggest that he should tender his resignation—his power being sufficiently weakened to push him not to complete his term of office.
The most virulent attacks are coming from the Left, who want to push Macron out by institutional means. 81 MPs from La France Insoumise (LFI) and the Green Party have signed a motion to impeach the head of state.
The action has no chance of success, but it does have the effect of putting the issue on the public agenda. According to Europe 1, the hypothesis of Macron’s resignation, previously considered absurd, is beginning to gain ground even within the presidential camp.
Former minister Édouard Philippe, who has just announced that he will be standing as a candidate in the 2027 presidential election, sees a very bleak future for Macron—the man he worked for during his first term. In an interview with Le Point magazine, he notes the institutional deadlock caused by Macron’s decision to dissolve the assembly in June and does not rule out Macron resigning or early presidential elections. This is one of the reasons why he is already putting his name forward as a candidate, even though the presidential elections are not due to be held for another three years.
On the Right, Marine Le Pen and Éric Ciotti are not ruling out the prospect of Emmanuel Macron resigning either. Even before the legislative elections at the end of June, Marine Le Pen envisaged a possible nightmare political scenario for the president: “One day Emmanuel Macron will make a phone call and no one will answer, then he’ll make a second one and it’ll be the same. He won’t stand for it, he’ll resign,” she told the newspaper La Dépêche. At the time, she declared that the only option left for the president would be “to resign in order to potentially emerge from a political crisis,” adding that this was not a “request” on her part, but an “observation.”
The situation has deteriorated considerably since then, and Macron’s ally Éric Ciotti has been much more categorical. Reacting to the announcement of Édouard Philippe’s candidacy, he said on TV channel France 2 on Wednesday, September 4th that, like Philippe, he thought that “the only solution was for Mr. Macron to leave.”
For the moment, the option of the president resigning leaves the French divided. A poll conducted over the summer on the subject showed that 51% of French people were in favour of his resignation, compared with 49% against. The appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister does not radically change the situation, as his political roadmap remains very vague.
