Prime minister shocks France with resignation

Outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who submitted his government's resignation to the French President this morning, delivers a statement at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, on October 6, 2025. France's President Emmanuel Macron on October 6, 2025 accepted Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's resignation, the presidency said, plunging the European nation further into political deadlock. Macron named Lecornu last month to the post, but the largely unchanged cabinet lineup he unveiled late October 5, 2025 was met with fierce criticism across the political spectrum.

Lecornu was the country’s third prime minister to step down in the past year

(Image credit: Stephane Mahe / Pool via Getty Images)

What happened

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned Monday, less than 24 hours after forming a cabinet to lead his country through a period of prolonged instability.

Lecornu, a close ally of French President Emmanuel Macron, was the country’s third prime minister to step down in the past year and had been in office for less than a month, making his the shortest-lived government in modern French history.

Who said what

“The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry out my function as prime minister,” Lecornu said in a statement blaming “partisan appetites” for his rapid downfall. His resignation, which shocked France, “came amid turmoil over the composition of his cabinet, an uneasy coalition of centrists and conservatives,” The New York Times said.

The collapse of the government prompted calls from the leftist France Unbowed and far-right National Rally parties for Macron to call snap elections, and they have already launched efforts to “encourage French citizens to register to vote,” France 24 said. “The farce has lasted long enough,” National Rally panjandrum Marine Le Pen told reporters.

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What next?

Macron asked Lecornu, who is staying on in a caretaker capacity, to “hold last-ditch talks with other political parties” in an effort to “chart a path out of the crisis,” said Reuters. But with France’s 2027 presidential elections on the horizon, the BBC said, the “deeper truth” of this political crisis is that the “more time passes, the harder it is going to be for anyone — even the most gifted of Macron acolytes — to set up a stable government.”

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.