France's new prime minister resigned on Monday after less than a month in office, sinking the country further into a political crisis and piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to find a way out of the deadlock. Sebastien Lecornu stepped down just 14 hours after naming his government and had been due to hold his first cabinet meeting in the afternoon. But his new government had raised hackles across the spectrum before ministers even entered their new offices and he risked an immediate no confidence vote in parliament this week. WATCH.
00:20hours after naming his government and had been due to hold his first cabinet meeting in the
00:26afternoon. But his new government had raised hackles across the spectrum before ministers
00:31even entered their new offices, and he risked an immediate no-confidence vote in Parliament this
00:38week. Le Corneau's 27-day stint in office was the shortest ever for a prime minister in modern France.
00:45The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry out my function as prime minister,
00:50Le Corneau said, denouncing the partisan appetites of factions who he said had forced his resignation.
00:58With the instability in France causing tremors across Europe, a German government spokesman said
01:04a stable France was an important contribution to stability in Europe. Le Corneau's resignation
01:11compounds a political crisis that has rocked France for over a year after centrist Macron
01:18called legislative elections in the summer of 2024, which ended in a hung parliament.
01:24The Paris stock market slipped after the announcement, with the CAC 40 index of blue-chip
01:29stocks was down around 1.7% at around 900 GMT. Macron has resisted calls to again order snap
01:38legislative polls and has also ruled out resigning himself before his mandate ends in 2027.
01:45He could also look for a new prime minister who would be the eighth of the president's mandate,
01:51but would face a struggle to survive without radical change. The 2027 presidential elections
01:57are expected to be a historic crossroads in French politics, with the French far-right under
02:04Marine Le Pen sensing its best-ever chance of taking power. Le Pen said it would be wise for
02:11Macron to resign, but also urged snap legislative polls as absolutely necessary. The party leader
02:18of Le Pen's far-right national rally, RN Jordan Bardella, said he expected the legislative elections
02:24to take place and added, the RN will obviously be ready to govern.
02:37Macron named Le Corneau, a 39-year-old former defence minister and close confidant known for
02:44his discretion and loyalty, to the post on September 9. The president had hoped his ally would take the
02:51heat out of the domestic crisis and allow him to focus on his efforts on the international stage
02:57and notably working with the United States to end Russia's war on Ukraine. But the largely unchanged
03:04cabinet Le Corneau unveiled late on Sunday sparked fierce criticism, in particular from the right-wing
03:11Republicans who were part of the coalition government. The Republicans were not going to offer
03:17Macron and his allies a final lap after the largely unchanged cabinet, the right-wing party's vice
03:24president François-Xavier Bellamy said. The line-up included former long-serving finance minister
03:31Bruno Le Maire as defence minister, a move critics said contradicted Le Corneau's pledges for change.
03:38Macron is now alone in the face of the crisis, said Le Monde daily.
03:47Le Corneau had faced the daunting task of finding approval in a deeply divided parliament for an austerity budget
04:00for next year. Le Corneau's two immediate predecessors, François Beirou and Michel Barnier, were ousted by the
04:08legislative chamber in a standoff over the spending plan and he risked the same fate. France's public debt has reached a record high,
04:17official data showed last week. France's debt-to-GDP ratio is now the European Union's third highest after Greece and Italy and is close to twice the 60% permitted under EU rules.
04:30Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group risk analysis firm, said all of Macron's options were hazardous, but resigning or calling snap polls risked bringing the far right to power.
04:44We believe that Macron will appoint a new prime minister and challenge the disparate far-right and left-wing opposition to cooperate to avoid a profound fiscal and political crisis, he said.
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