French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu resigned on Monday, just a day after naming his government and less than a month in office. President Emmanuel Macron has accepted the resignation, the Élysée Palace announced.
In a press statement made at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, Lecornu said, "You can't be Prime Minister when the conditions aren't met."
He denounced the partisan appetites of the factions that forced his resignation. "The very principle of building a compromise between political parties is to be able to combine green lines and take into account a certain number of red lines," he declared. "But we cannot be at both extremes, and certain opposition political parties have understood this," he added.
Lecornu was appointed Prime Minister just 27 days ago.
Just mere hours before his resignation, he named the key members of his cabinet. He faced furious criticism from opposition parties and some of Macron's minority coalition partners after he announced a government full of ministers who were holdovers from the last government and had already served in high-level posts.
The unchanged government, which resembled predecessor Francois Bayrou’s cabinet, was dominated once again by Macron’s allies.
Parties from both the left and far-right were to hold meetings on Monday to decide whether or not to oust Lecornu in a no-confidence vote. Lecornu decided to leave before that happened since the government seemed like it was already on the verge of collapse.
The far-right National Rally party has urged Macron to immediately call snap parliamentary elections. Jordan Bardella, the president of Marine Le Pen’s NR party, said, “There cannot be a return to stability without a return to the ballot box and the national assembly being dissolved.”
Marine Le Pen called for Macron to dissolve the assembly, saying "the only wise decision in these circumstances... is to return to the polls and for the French to give direction to the country. " She also added that it would be “wise” for President Macron to resign.
The left parties have called for Macron’s resignation. Mathilde Panot, of the hard left La France Insoumise, said in a post on X, "Lecornu resigns. 3 Prime Ministers defeated in less than a year. The countdown has begun. Macron must go."
Après la démission de Sébastien Lecornu, nous demandons l’examen immédiat de la motion déposée par 104 députés pour la destitution d’Emmanuel Macron.
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) October 6, 2025
He is the third French prime minister in a year that was filled with political crisis for the country.
He is also the seventh PM across Macron’s term. The French President, who is a centrist, had earlier faced criticism when he opted to pick one of his closest allies as PM, rather than broaden the government's appeal across the political spectrum.
Lecornu démissionne.
— Mathilde Panot (@MathildePanot) October 6, 2025
3 Premiers ministres défaits en moins d’un an.
Le compte à rebours est lancé.
Macron doit partir.
When Lecornu, a former defence minister, was appointed, he was immediately faced with the task of uniting the deeply fractured parliament to pass a budget to rein in the country’s budget deficit.
His predecessors, Bayrou and Michel Barnier, were both ousted over the spending plan.
Lecornu is now the shortest-serving prime minister in the country’s history. The record was previously held by Barnier, who was appointed by the same Macron in 2024. He lasted three months.
