Lecornu Resigns as France Succumbs to Political Chaos
Lecornu is gone, but why did he resign? Will there be a new PM or new elections? Will Macron resign? And what is the destitution procedure that the opposition is trying to force against Macron?
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Less than 24 hours after being named a government minister and 27 days after being nominated Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu has given his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron.
Sébastien Lecornu has not only been the shortest-lived Prime Minister in the history of the Fifth French Republic, but has also become the fifth former Prime Minister in 21 months.
The Lecornu government may also be the shortest-lived in the French Fifth Republic, having lasted for a mere 14 hours and 26 minutes since its announcement.
And we know why this has happened.
A doomed repeat government
As you guys will have undoubtedly read with great interest in yesterday’s Weekly Dispatch, I argued that Sébastien Lecornu’s roadmap and his political decisions made very little sense when viewed through the lens of the current political situation in France.
⏰The Lecornu Government is Collapsing Before it Forms
A new format, Prime Minister Lecornu works towards a political statement on Tuesday while forming his government, and has already been threatened with motions of censure by the left and far-right.
For a quick recap:
”Now, while Lecornu will make his declaration of general policy on Tuesday 7 October 2025, and he’s signalled his intent to discuss and work with the other political parties, my question as a Social Liberal who is a part of Emmanuel Macron’s party is: how?How on earth do you manage to square any of this with what the opposition has been saying since the ill-advised elections that our President called after the Presidential Majority got whipped in the European Parliamentary Elections?
How do you square any of this with the reasons that were given by the *entirety* of the opposition forces for bringing down Francois Bayrou’s government?
This doesn’t politically make sense, and everything that is happening now is, in my opinion, dragging us towards another government collapse, and potentially the very problematic scenario where we have no budget at the beginning of next year.
All of this after Prime Minister Lecornu seemed to indicate no less than three weeks ago that he was planning to work with the Parti Socialiste to try to grow the government majority, which you keen readers will remember Les Republicains weren’t all too chuffed about.”
And having seen the French government announce yesterday evening, my position has absolutely not changed, and in fact, I continue to wonder what on earth was going through their minds when, with the
Why Sébastien Lecornu resigned
Now, speaking outside the Hôtel de Matignon at 10h50, he announced that he could not be Prime Minister when the conditions were not in place, claiming to have worked tirelessly to build these conditions, to lay a path forward, and to address the issues in French society, as mentioned in his roadmap.
Ultimately, after all of this, he didn’t see a way forward this Monday morning for things to progress positively for three reasons:
The opposition parties didn’t see the value of Lecornu stating he would not use Article 49.3, and that the Opposition parties no longer had any pretext for censuring governments or
Political parties continue to rebuff a mentality of compromise, and that all groupings, even within the Socle Commun, refused many times to take on any proposals from other parties, but demanded that everybody else adopt their programmes.
The composition of the government within the Socle Commun was rough, and “awoke” several Presidential aspirations in individuals ahead of the 2027 Presidential elections.
However, while criticising the mess around this situation, particularly the “many red lines in many people’s mouths”, he still seemed oddly optimistic when highlighting the need to find a pathway forward and to work hard.
Lecornu also dropped a message to the entirety of the French political class:
“You should always prefer your country to your party”
And quite honestly, I agree with him.
The opposition parties, especially those on the left, had regularly called for Macronist governments to renounce the use of Article 49.3, hammering home that this was a major red line for them. Yet, when this was finally given, the opposition parties didn’t care; they threw it back in the face of the Prime Minister, who had given them what they wanted.
Not only this, but his analysis of the lack of compromise culture that has gridlocked the Assemblée Nationale is also 100% correct. All of the parties are now entrenched in a mentality of self-profit, and with the Presidential Elections on the horizon, with campaigns already being prepared, if not already underway, this is likely to worsen.
This will not improve, either. Remi Branco, the spokesperson for the Parti Socialiste, was just on national television claiming that it was time for everybody to work together and for there to be positivity and conviviality between the parties on the topics.
The problem, naturally, is that the PS were one of the groups who have been holding their red lines at all costs and who have also been fighting tooth and nail to benefit from these situations to come out of La France Insoumise’s shadow and become the biggest left-win party.
This was clear in his criticism of certain personalities within the Socle Commun, which, while not direct, he is very likely targeting Les Républicains minister, Bruno Retailleau, who has been a constant thorn in the government’s side and has been using this position to benefit constantly in polling.
Bruno even went as far as complaining, after his nomination, that he had not received enough sous-ministres, that he wasn’t being treated right, etc etc.
Right-wing Diva things.
However, there are also some suspicions that he may have been targeting former Prime Minister and Presidential hopeful Gabriel Attal, who has been reported to have refused to join the Lecornu government and who may have seen the writing on the wall with the roadmap and the proposals for the government.
But, ultimately, let’s be entirely clear:
The reason France is in its current situation is that Emmanuel Macron dissolved the Assemblée Nationale after a chaotic European election campaign by our party.
A new Nomination or Election?
But what next? Currently, there are a handful of paths forward towards:
Firstly, the “easiest” option would be for Emmanuel Macron to simply nominate a new Prime Minister, either from the Socle Commun or from the left, but the simple reality is that this may just not be possible anymore.
There was a period of time when he announced that it was necessary to reach out to the left, and he could have nominated someone like Olivier Faure. the first secretary of the Parti Socialist, but currently he’s not even sure to accept this anymore.
Likewise, nominating someone from the centre will simply lead to the same result, and if you nominate someone from the far-right, then you not only give them a platform to spread their nonsense misinformation (hi Trump, Boris, etc), but when they eventually get censured by two-thirds of the Assemblée, and they will be censured, then you also give them a victim narrative to carry into the next elections.
Which leaves another option: Dissolution
In this case, Emmanuel Macron dissolves the Assemblée National, ends the mandates of all deputies currently active, and triggers anticipated legislative elections.
However, will that fix anything? Even if I think this is the most likely result, I’m not so sure it really solves anyone’s problems.
Looking at the polling data from early September, there’s still no clear dominant party that will be able to secure a decisive victory and take the lead in governing the country.
While it may be tempting to look at the above poll, and claim that the Rassemblement National and allies will come first in the first round, the reality is that in a second round, they’ll likely run straight into the wall of the cordon sanitaire (or whatever is left of it)
The discussions of a “union of the right” are also premature, as always, with the majority of the far-right-leaning members of Les Républicains having left with Eric Ciotti.
And as you can imagine, the RN deputies continue to run around screaming about an “alliance of shame” from the far-left to the Macronists, claiming that the will of the people is being attacked while showing a grave lack of political knowledge or education.
But, as I always try to remind you: polls are snapshots, not divinations.
However, the fact that this is unlikely to resolve anything, and may just bring us back to where we are today, brings us to another possibility:
Will Emmanuel Macron resign or be removed?
One of the constant demands of the opposition since the European Elections in 2024, and the only policy initiative being led by the far-left and the far-right, is the ongoing attempt to force Emmanuel Macron to give up and quit.
Now, this is the single least likely result of the ongoing political situation, not least because Emmanuel Macron has just refused to quit and has no interest in being one of the few presidents who have thrown in the towel.
The reason why it’s almost impossible is that Article 68 of the Constitution of the French Republic is reserved for Heads of State who have committed a grave breach of duties that are “manifestly incompatible with the exercise of his mandate”, effectively committing some form of treason.
In terms of the process behind this:
The adoption, by the National Assembly or by the Senate, by a two-thirds majority of their members, of a proposal for the meeting of Parliament in the High Court.
The motion for a resolution must be reasoned and signed by at least one tenth of the members of the assembly from which it originates;
The proposal is then forwarded to the other assembly, which must give its opinion within fifteen days. If it does not adopt the proposal, the procedure is then over;
If the proposal is adopted, the High Court, presided over by the President of the National Assembly, must rule within one month
Now, there’s a very, very remote possibility that the Assemblée Nationale could put together a two-thirds majority out of frustration and potentially even a wider protest vote against Emmanuel Macron, but that’s as far as this situation would go.
Once the proposal went to the Senate., there’s a very good chance that it would simply not be supported, simply due to the chaos that it would cause, and the fact that senators would benefit far less from partisan action like this.
However, if the Senate were to say ‘yes’ and support it, the High Court would then need to rule that it is legally acceptable, which is also a major question mark.
A motion of destitution was put forward in October 2024 by Mathild Panot and her 80 deputies in La France Insoumise. However, it was rejected by the Law Committee of the National Assembly and subsequently put aside by the Conference of Presidents.
But, all of this to say, Macron will likely not quit or be removed, and that French political chaos will continue, no matter how much Jean-Luc Mélenchon or Marine Le Pen want it to happen.
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We all had an inking that he would be short lived. It was actually a surprise that he accepted the job in the first place as he was an “up and comer”. Question now is what next? Does Macron have any more rabbits up his sleeve? Who would accept the post now? We watch and wait with interest