France has been plunged into fresh political turmoil after Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu resigned less than a month into the job, the Elysee Palace announced on Monday.
Lecornu, 39, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron and former Minister of the Armed Forces, had been appointed on September 9, 2025, following the ouster of his predecessor François Bayrou, whose government collapsed in a no-confidence vote. His resignation after only 27 days in office marks one of the shortest premierships in modern French history.
Regarded as a pragmatic technocrat, Lecorno had sought to bridge France’s sharply divided parliament without relying on the controversial Article 49.3 mechanism that allows bills to pass without a vote. But the effort quickly unraveled amid intensifying criticism of Macron’s leadership and growing pressure from within the ruling Renaissance party.
The resignation leaves President Macron scrambling to find his eighth prime minister since 2017, underlining the deepening instability of his second term. The Élysée said consultations were underway to appoint a replacement, while opposition leaders renewed calls for fresh legislative elections to resolve what many have called France’s most severe political crisis in years.
