Lecornu bemoans lack of compromise across political spectrum as he resigns as French PM – Europe live | World news
Lecornu blames lack of compromise across political spectrum Sébastien Lecornu has spoken to reporters, about an hour after announcing his resignation. “I was ready to compromise, but each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire program,” he said from the courtyard of Matignon Palace, the prime minister’s headquarters. He insisted that…
Lecornu blames lack of compromise across political spectrum
Sébastien Lecornu has spoken to reporters, about an hour after announcing his resignation.
“I was ready to compromise, but each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire program,” he said from the courtyard of Matignon Palace, the prime minister’s headquarters.
He insisted that he had worked for weeks to forge a viable path among social partners, unions and politicians from across the spectrum. He highlighted that his promise not to push through legislation without a parliamentary vote was a major break with past years and should have been significant enough for opposition politicians to have backed him.
“It would take little for it to work,” Lecornu added. “By being more selfless for many, by knowing how to show humility … One must always put one’s country before one’s party.”
Key events
Closing summary
We’re wrapping up our live coverage for today, here’s a recap of one of the most turbulent days in recent French politics:
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Just as many across France were launching into their workday, news broke that the country’s prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had resigned.
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The swift, unexpected resignation came after allies and foes alike threatened to topple the new government, leaving Lecornu blaming the “egos” of opposition politicians.
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The resignation was yet another hint of the longstanding political crisis that has gripped France for more than a year, after Macron called legislative elections in the summer of 2024 which ended in a hung parliament.
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Macron’s opponents immediately seized on the moment. The far-right National Rally called on him to either call for new snap elections or resign while across the spectrum on the left, France Unbowed also called for Macron’s departure.
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Everyone is now waiting to hear whether Macron will respond by resigning, calling another snap election or appointing another prime minister. But hours after the resignation was made public, there has been little sign of Macron. Video captured by broadcaster BFMTV showed him on a solitary stroll in Paris, but he has yet to address the country.
Greta Thunberg, along with the 170 other rights campaigners who took part in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, are expected to land soon in Greece after being deported by Israel.
On Saturday, the Guardian obtained correspondence in which Thunberg told Swedish officials she was being subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody. An official who has visited the activist in prison said Thunberg had claimed she was detained in a cell infested with bedbugs, with too little food and water.
Israeli officials said the allegations were “complete lies” noting that detainees were given “access to water, food and toilets; they were not denied access to legal counsel, and all their legal rights, including access to medical care, were fully upheld.”
The Guardian has set up a live feed to track Thunberg and the others as they arrive. You can follow the blog for updates or watch here:
In Paris, Reuters has been out on the streets to ask people what they think of the country’s deepening political instability.
“I’ve never seen this,” Gerard Duseteu, 79, told them. “I’m almost ashamed, even, to be French.”
Some said new elections appeared to be the only option. “We cannot continue like this,” said 20-year-old political sciences student Marius Loyer.
Ukraine strikes Russian munitions factory
Ukraine’s military has said that it has struck one of Russia’s main factories that produces explosives for the Russian army. It also said that it had struck an oil terminal and an ammunition depot in occupied Crimea.
In a statement, the military said “numerous explosions” were reported after the strike on the YM Sverdlov explosives factory in western Russia, while a fire had broken out following the attack on the oil depot in eastern Crimea’s Feodosia.
Ukraine’s forces have stopped long-range attacks on strategic Russian targets, particularly oil facilities, as diplomatic efforts to end the years-long war have stalled.
Israel says Greta Thunberg among 171 more Gaza flotilla activists deported
In news beyond France, Israel has just said that it deported another 171 of the activists detained for taking part in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Those deported included Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, said Israel’s foreign ministry on social media.
The 171 included nationals from 19 countries, including Greece, Italy, France, and the United States. They were sent to Greece and Slovakia, it added.
Hours after news broke of Lecornu’s resignation, French broadcaster BFMTV has published footage that appears to show Macron strolling along the banks of the Seine River in Paris.
The president appeared to be speaking on the phone, a reporter notes. “It is an image of solitude that clearly illustrates the moment he is going through … The loneliness of power, the loneliness of the decisions he will have to make in the coming hours. Dissolution, a new prime minister, a referendum, who knows what else?”
Macron has yet to publicly address the resignation.
Bruno Retailleau, the outgoing French interior minister, has urged Macron to speak soon.
It’s been hours since we learned of Sébastien Lecornu’s resignation. The prime minister’s decision, coming after less than a month in office, plunged the country deeper into political crisis.
“I think that in this period of turmoil that the country is going through, he obviously needs to speak out,” Retailleau told TF1 television.
As politicians across the spectrum call on the French president to call new elections or resign, Macron has yet to publicly address the nation.
Reactions to Lecornu’s resignation
Soon after news of the resignation broke, reaction came pouring in from across the political spectrum. Here’s a small sample:
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party:
“I call on the President of the Republic to dissolve the National Assembly … this joke has gone on long enough, the farce must end.”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the hard-left France Unbowed party
“Following the resignation of Sébastien Lecornu, we call for the immediate consideration of the motion tabled by 104 MPs for the impeachment of Emmanuel Macron,” he wrote on social media.
Bruno Retailleau, outgoing French interior minister and head of the right-wing Les Republicains party
“If there is a deadlock, then we will have to return to the voting booth. But I think there are other ways before it comes to that. It’s just that those ways are not mine to decide.”
Arthur Delaporte, lawmaker with the Socialist party
“This short-lived government illustrates only one thing: Macronism is plunging the country once again into chaos,” he wrote on social media.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, outgoing environment minister
“I despair of this circus where everyone plays their part, but no one takes responsibility,” she wrote on social media.
She added: “To those who still think that we could govern without the Left, I say: you are mistaken. We can’t move forward without sending out strong signals, without reaching out to those who, despite our differences, share the same ambition: to serve France and the French people.”
More on how we got here
Macron has already cycled through five prime ministers since 2022 and Reuters has some interesting analysis on why this might be.
Under normal circumstances, a government may have been able to muddle its way through France’s fragmented parliament.
But the survival chances of any government was complicated by two key factors:
-The first is France’s budget crisis. France has the eurozone’s largest deficit and has been facing mounting pressure to get its public spending in order.
Michel Barnier tried, but he was toppled by parliament last December for his proposed budget cuts to the 2025 budget. His successor, François Bayrou, managed to get the 2025 legislation over the line, but he was ousted last month over his proposals for the 2026 budget.
-The other key factor is the race to succeed Macron. The president cannot run again in 2027, leaving all the political parties keen to stake out their ideological ground in the lead up to the vote.
This has made it nearly impossible to find common ground in parliament, Reuters notes.
It’s just before 1pm in Paris – here’s a summary of the day so far:
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Just as most across France were starting their workday, news broke that the country’s prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had resigned.
-
The swift, unexpected resignation came after allies and foes alike threatened to topple the new government, leaving Lecornu blaming the “egos” of opposition politicians.
-
Macron’s opponents immediately seized on the moment. The far-right National Rally called on him to either call for new snap elections or resign while across the spectrum on the left, France Unbowed also called for Macron’s departure.
The months of political turmoil in France come as the euro zone’s second-largest economy is struggling to put its finances in order.
France’s public debt has reached a record high, official data showed last week, while the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is now the European Union’s third-highest after Greece and Italy. It is close to twice the 60 percent permitted under EU rules.
“It’s just one government after another … this is the major problem for French assets, but it has a spillover effect for the rest of Europe,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG Group, told Reuters.
Hours after Lecornu’s resignation, Germany’s government highlighted the role that a “stable France” plays in Europe.
A spokesperson for the German government, however, insisted that “there is no reason to doubt that France is stable”.
What’s next for France?
Lecornu’s resignation means that Macron has three possible courses of action and all of them are hazardous, notes Mujtaba Rahman, the managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.
In an analyst note, Rahman writes:
He can appoint a new prime minister, possibly a senior non-political figure or technocrat, to try to push through a budget for next year to cut France’s ballooning budget deficit.
He can call a new parliamentary election.
Or he can resign himself and bring forward the presidential election due in April – May 2027.”
As the second and third options could see Marine Le Pen’s far-right party take power, Macron is likely to appoint a new prime minister and try again to hammer out some sort of compromise among France’s fragmented parliament, Rahman adds.
Angelique Chrisafis, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, has this report on Lecornu’s resignation and the turmoil it has unleashed:
In it, she notes that Lecornu had faced furious criticism from opposition politicians when he announced a new government that was virtually unchanged from the previous one. Lecornu had promised a “profound break” with past politics.
With parties from the left to far right set to hold meetings on Monday to decide whether or not to vote to oust Lecornu in a no-confidence vote, it appeared that the government would collapse before it had even started work.
Lecornu apparently decided to leave before he could be ousted.
Lecornu blames lack of compromise across political spectrum
Sébastien Lecornu has spoken to reporters, about an hour after announcing his resignation.
“I was ready to compromise, but each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire program,” he said from the courtyard of Matignon Palace, the prime minister’s headquarters.
He insisted that he had worked for weeks to forge a viable path among social partners, unions and politicians from across the spectrum. He highlighted that his promise not to push through legislation without a parliamentary vote was a major break with past years and should have been significant enough for opposition politicians to have backed him.
“It would take little for it to work,” Lecornu added. “By being more selfless for many, by knowing how to show humility … One must always put one’s country before one’s party.”
How did we get here?
The roots of today’s political crisis can be traced back to Macron’s decision to call legislative elections in the summer of 2024.
The elections yielded a fragmented parliament, where both the far-right and hard-left hold considerable sway. Complicating matters is the fact politicians in France are not used to building coalitions and finding consensus.
Hours after the results of the legislative elections came in last summer, one 36-year-old in Lyon explained it to me this way:
We don’t have this kind of culture. We have a culture of a leader who decides for others and the rest are in opposition, waiting for the next election to put forward or impose their ideas. So this is all unknown to us.”
14 hours of government
Lecornu’s short time in office hints at the depth of the political crisis that has gripped France; Lecornu was prime minister for only 27 days. His government lasted 14 hours.
It was the shortest stint in office ever for a prime minister in modern France.
After weeks of consulting with political parties across the board, Lecornu, a close ally of Macron, appointed his ministers on Sunday. They had been set to hold their first meeting on Monday afternoon.
But Lecornu’s choice of ministers was criticised across the political spectrum and described as both too right-wing or not sufficiently so, sparking concerns on how long it would last.
According to the Associated Press, Lecornu’s resignation means that ministers appointed last night now find themselves in the bizarre situation of becoming caretaker ministers — remaining in place only to manage day-to-day affairs until a new government is formed — before some of them had even been formally installed in office.
The situation was summed up by Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the newly reappointed minister for ecology, in this way: “I despair of this circus.”
Here are the immediate reactions we’ve seen on social media from the opposition:
The leader of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella: “There can be no return to stability without a return to the polls and the dissolution of the National Assembly.”
Mathilde Panot, of the hard left France Unbowed, called on the president, Emmanuel Macron to follow in Lecornu’s footsteps: “Lecornu resigns. 3 Prime Ministers defeated in less than a year. The countdown has begun. Macron must go.“
Stocks plunge and opponents call for new elections or Macron to go
Sébastien Lecornu was the country’s third prime minister in barely a year.
News of his resignation sent the CAC-40 index of leading French companies plunging; it was down by nearly 2% on its Friday close.
As many across France reeled with shock, opponents of the president, Emmanuel Macron, immediately seized on the moment. The far-right National Rally called on him to either call for new snap elections or resign while across the spectrum on the left, France Unbowed also called for Macron’s departure.
France gripped by political turmoil as PM resigns
Good morning and welcome to Europe’s live blog. All eyes this morning are on France, which has been plunged into political turmoil as the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, steps down after less than a month in the role.
Emmanuel Macron accepted his resignation this morning after the cabinet the president announced late on Sunday was met with fierce criticism across the political spectrum.
Lecornu is due to speak shortly, so stay with us for all the developments.