France’s newest prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, and his government, resigned on Monday, hours after his cabinet members were announced.
“I was ready to compromise, but each party wanted the other to adopt its entire program,” the outgoing prime minister said during a public address on Monday morning, after announcing his resignation.
The 39-year-old’s cabinet, which lasted for just 14 hours, is now the shortest-lived government in French history. Lecornu’s tenure as Prime Minister lasted just 27 days.
This comes amid a deepening political crisis in France, which sees no political party attain a clear majority due to stark differences in opinion.
Lecornu, who is France’s fifth prime minister in two years (after the resignation of former Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on September 8) had been tasked with resolving the political deadlock in the French parliament.
However, his new cabinet lineup angered both opponents and allies alike—who had earlier threatened to topple the government—because some found it too right-wing, others found too little right-wing presence. A few others also questioned the stability of the new cabinet in a parliament that still had no group with a majority.
The shock resignation led to the far-right National Rally party urging President Emmanuel Macron to call for snap parliamentary elections.
“There can be no return to stability without a return to the polls and the dissolution of the National Assembly,” National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said after Lecornu’s resignation, as per a Reuters report.
However, far-left party France Unbowed countered them, with party member Mathilde Panot reiterating that “Macron must go”, as per the same report.
Why did new French PM Lecornu resign after 2-week stint?
