French Prime Minister Sebastien Le Corneille has submitted his resignation to Emmanuel Macron, who has accepted it. The prime minister, who was appointed on September 9, has come under heavy criticism from his opponents and the right wing after announcing part of his government's line-up on Sunday night.
In a statement he made in Matigon at 11:45 (Greece time), he stressed that "there is no way for a country to move forward in which everyone acts believing that they have the absolute majority."
"The conditions for me to exercise the duties of prime minister were no longer met," said Sébastien Lecorni during a speech at Matignon. The resigned prime minister explained that he "tried to chart a course with the social partners, bosses, forces representing workers' unions, in particular on issues that have been the subject of deadlocks for many weeks," such as unemployment insurance, the difficulty of work, social security, in order to "revive equality" and "build an action plan" with common ground.
For Sébastien Lecorny, three reasons no longer allowed him to be prime minister. First, he cites the fact that political groups “sometimes pretended not to see the change, the deep rupture represented by the non-use of article 49.3 of the Constitution” and that, in his opinion, there was no longer “a pretext for preventive censorship.”
Furthermore, "the parties continue to adopt a stance as if they all had an absolute majority in the National Assembly," he regrets.
Finally, "the composition of the government within the framework of the common base was not smooth and led to the resurgence of certain party ambitions, which in some cases were not unrelated to the future presidential elections."
“It wouldn’t take long to achieve this,” concludes Sébastien Lecorny, calling on citizens to be “more selfless” and to “put away certain egos.” “Some things can be done before 2027,” he estimates, while also calling for “always having a sense of the general interest and substance.”
"The very principle of reaching a compromise between political formations is to be able to combine green lines and take into account certain red lines," he added. "But one cannot be at both extremes and certain opposition political formations have understood this."
"We must always prefer our country to our party. We must know how to listen to our activists, but always think of the French people," he concluded.
The shortest term of a prime minister in France
After weeks of consultations with all political parties, Le Corneille, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, appointed his ministers on Sunday, and the cabinet was scheduled to hold its first meeting on Monday afternoon.
However, the composition of the new cabinet has angered both opponents and allies, who have seen it as either too right-wing or inadequate, raising questions about how long it could last at a time when France is already deeply mired in political crisis, with no group holding a majority in a fragmented parliament.
French politics has become increasingly unstable since Macron's re-election in 2022, due to the lack of any party or group holding a parliamentary majority.
In an interview with BFM-TV immediately after the announcement of Sébastien Lecorni's resignation, the president of the National Coalition (RN), Jordan Bardella, assessed that "the interim prime minister had no room for maneuver." "Emmanuel Macron was certainly the one who put together the government," he assessed, assuring that "he did not understand anything about the situation we are in."
"Stability cannot be restored without a return to the polls and the dissolution of the National Assembly," he insisted.
European and Paris stock markets fall after French prime minister resigns
French banks led the financial markets' decline, with Societe Generale falling more than 6% on the CAC 40 immediately after the announcement, while BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole also saw significant declines.
The index closed down 1,5%.
The euro also fell against the pound and the dollar, while the French government's borrowing costs, as reflected in bond markets, reached levels last seen almost a month ago, when the country was once again in the same political impasse.
Source: protothema.gr
