French prime minister resigns hours after announcing cabinet

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has resigned just hours after he unveiled his new cabinet.

Lecornu handed his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

His government was the shortest-lived in modern French history.

Lecornu was prime minister for only 27 days with his newly set-up government lasting only 14 hours.

The surprise resignation came after allies and foes alike threatened to topple his government, plunging the country further into political crisis.

It also tumbled French stocks and bonds, and dipped the euro.

The Elysee Palace said Macron has accepted the prime minister’s resignation.

French politics has been marked by intense instability and repeated government collapses since Macron’s re-election in 2022.

No single faction has been able to command a majority.

Macron’s decision to call a snap parliamentary election last year deepened the crisis by producing an even more fragmented parliament.

Lecornu, who was only appointed last month, was Macron’s fifth prime minister in two years.

Previous prime ministers, including François Bayrou, also fell after losing confidence votes tied to unpopular austerity budget proposals aimed at reducing France’s ballooning debt, which has surpassed €3 trillion.

There are now increasing calls for Macron to be kicked out.

“Lecornu resigns. Three prime ministers defeated in less than a year. The countdown has begun. Macron must go,” Mathilde Panot, leader of France Unbowed, hard left group, in the national assembly, said.

Budget talks have also became fraught, requiring compromises between three ideologically opposed blocs — Macron’s ruling centrist minority, the far right, and the left.