Paris. France’s new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu resigned less than a month into the job and barely 24 hours after naming a new government that triggered a coalition ally to withdraw support, plunging the country deeper into political chaos and leaving President Emmanuel Macron with dwindling options.

The Élysée Palace said Monday that Macron, whose approval ratings have fallen to record lows, had accepted Lecornu’s resignation.

Lecornu, who replaced François Bayrou on Sept. 9, became France’s fourth prime minister in just over a year, during one of the most turbulent periods of the Fifth Republic. He is now the shortest-serving premier since the system was established in 1958.

France has been gripped by political paralysis since Macron’s snap elections last year produced a fragmented legislature with no clear majority. Far-right and left-wing blocs hold over 320 seats in the National Assembly, while Macron’s centrist alliance and its conservative partners control just 210.

Despite three weeks of negotiations to avoid a no-confidence vote, Lecornu was forced to step down hours after unveiling his Cabinet on Sunday, following the defection of conservatives who objected to his appointment of former finance minister Bruno Le Maire as defense minister.

Lecornu’s caretaker government will handle day-to-day affairs until a new administration is formed. Macron must now either appoint another prime minister or dissolve the National Assembly and call fresh legislative elections.

A loyal Macron ally, Lecornu said he could no longer continue in office after failing to build consensus.

“The government could have succeeded with just a bit more work, and if our coalition partners had been a little more selfless,” he said, in a veiled rebuke of conservative leader Bruno Retailleau. “One must always put one’s country before one’s party.”

Macron under pressure

With less than two years before the next presidential election, Macron’s opponents seized on the resignation. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen called for either parliamentary dissolution or Macron’s own resignation.

“This raises a question for the President of the Republic: can he continue to avoid dissolving Parliament?” Le Pen said. “We have reached the end of the road. The only reasonable solution is to return to the polls.”

The left-wing France Unbowed party also urged Macron to step down, while socialist and green leaders called for reviving their leftist coalition.

The political upheaval rattled investors, sending France’s CAC 40 index down nearly 2 percent early Monday before recovering some losses.

Several newly appointed ministers found themselves in the awkward position of becoming caretakers before being formally sworn in. “I despair of this circus,” Ecology Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Criticism over Cabinet choices

Lecornu faced sharp criticism across party lines for his Cabinet picks, particularly his decision to return Le Maire, blamed by many for France’s ballooning deficit, to a top role. France’s public debt reached €3.35 trillion ($3.9 trillion), or 114 percent of GDP, at the end of the first quarter of 2025, with debt servicing consuming about 7 percent of government spending.

Key posts such as interior, foreign affairs, and justice remained unchanged, with Retailleau, Jean-Noël Barrot, and Gérald Darmanin staying in their respective roles.

Retailleau denied responsibility for Lecornu’s downfall despite publicly criticizing the Cabinet lineup. “It’s a matter of trust,” he told TF1 television. “You promise change and end up with the same old faces. This government had all the conditions to be censured.”

Lecornu had promised to seek consensus in Parliament and ruled out invoking Article 49.3, a constitutional mechanism used by previous governments to bypass lawmakers and pass budgets without a vote.

Instead, he vowed to negotiate with both left and right-wing factions. But his brief tenure will likely be remembered as another casualty of France’s deepening political fragmentation.

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