File – Then, the French Minister of Defense, Sebastien Lecornu, on the right, and the French president Emmanuel Macron speak at the end of a speech by the president to the army leaders in Paris on Sunday, July 13, 2025.
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Paris РFaced with criticisms on all sides, the new French Prime Minister S̩bastien Lecornu resigned less than 24 hours after appointing his government and after less than a month of power, plunging the country into a deep political crisis.
The French presidency said in a statement on Monday that President Emmanuel Macron had accepted his resignation. Lecornu had replaced his predecessor François Bayrou to become the fourth Prime Minister of France barely a year.
“It would take little for it to work,” said Lecornu in his resignation speech. “By being more altruistic for many, knowing how to show humility. You always have to put your country in front of your party.”
Macron’s opponents immediately tried to capitalize on shocking resignation, the national rally of the far right calling it either to call for new instant elections or to resign.
“This raises a question for the President of the Republic: can he continue to resist the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly? We reached the end of the road,” said the chief of the far right, Marine Le Pen. “There is no other solution. The only wise line of conduct in these circumstances is to return to the polls.”
On the far left, France Unbowed also asked for the departure of Macron.
The resignation rocked investors, sending the CAC-40 index of the main French companies plunging. The index dropped by almost 2% at its Friday fence.
The ministers appointed the previous night found themselves in the bizarre situation to become ministers of the guards – maintained in place only to manage daily affairs until a new government is formed – before some of them were even officially installed in power.
The French outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who resigned one day after appointing his government, returned after making his statement to the Matignon hotel in Paris, Monday, October 6, 2025.
Stéphane Mahe / Reuters Pool / AP
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Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the newly renowned Minister of Ecology, published on X: “I despair of this circus”.
The choice of the ministers of Lecornu was criticized through the political spectrum, in particular his decision to bring back the former finance minister Bruno Le Maire to serve the Ministry of Defense, the criticisms claiming that under his watch the public deficit of France has skyrocketed. The main task of Lecornu would have been to spend a budget because France is faced with a massive debt crisis. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, France’s public debt was 3,346 euros (3.9 dollars), or 114% of GDP. The debt service remains a major budget, representing around 7% of public spending.
Other key positions have been largely unchanged from the previous cabinet, the curator Bruno Retailleau remaining as Minister of the Interior responsible for the police and internal security, Jean-No ° Barrot remaining as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Gérald Darmanin, keeping the Ministry of Justice.
French policy has been disarray since Macron called the Snap elections last year which produced a deeply fragmented legislature. The far right and left legislators hold more than 320 seats in the National Assembly, while centrists and allied conservatives hold 210.
Looking for a consensus in the National Assembly, Lecornu consulted all political forces and unions before training his cabinet. He also swore not to use a special constitutional power that his predecessors had used to force budgets by Parliament without a vote and would rather ask for compromises with the legislators of the left and the right.
