Macron loses fifth premie and political crisis in France gets worse

Less than 24 hours after announcing his office, French Prime Minister Sébastien Leconnu presented on Monday (6) his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, deepening the political crisis that has been dragging on since the beginning of the head of state’s second term.

The government, formed on Sunday, did not hold the first ministerial meeting, and its dissolution left Macron without majority and without political direction, amid increasing pressure by an institutional exit.

The resignation, confirmed by the Elisha Palace, represents the third fall of government in one year and reinforces the perception that the fifth republic, a political system created in 1958, came into functional collapse.

Leconnu was the fifth prime minister in 21 months and had taken office in September, with the promise of reposing bridges between the center and the right.

His resignation, the fastest in French modern history, exposed the erosion of presidential authority and the absolute blockade of Parliament, which is still divided into three blocks – left, center and far right – with no possible majority.

Leconnu stated in a speech in the courtyard of Hôtel de Matignon, the prime minister of the Premier, that “one cannot be prime minister when the conditions are not gathered” and that “it is always necessary to prefer the country to the party.”

The 39-year-old former minister claimed that political formations continue to act as if they had absolute majority, in a context where any pact attempt was unfeasible.

The New Popular Front (NFP) and the Insubmissive France (LFI), political movements of the French left, immediately reacted to the government’s collapse.

In a statement, Jean-Luc Mélenchon said the episode confirms the “historical exhaustion of the fifth republic” and announced that 104 deputies from its coalition have already presented an motion for the removal of Emmanuel Macron.

“The republic is misrepresented, democracy is falsified. It’s time to return the floor to the French people,” he said. For Mélenchon, the president is “the origin of chaos” for having summoned early elections in 2024 and refused to assume the result, which made majority relative to the left.

The parties that make up NFP – socialists, communists, ecologists and insubmissive France – advocate a democratic exit based on popular vote while rejecting the formation of a new cabinet for behind -the -scenes arrangements.

The coalition called on an emergency meeting to discuss political driving after renunciation and evaluate the possibility of early legislative elections.

“No combination can replace popular vote. Return to the people is the response of democracies when they are in impasse,” Mélenchon said.

With five prime ministers in less than two years-Élisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, François Bayrou and now Leconnu-the French government faces an unprecedented level of instability since the founding of the current political system.

Successive crises reflect the erosion of the executive’s legitimacy and Macron’s failure to build a parliamentary majority after his party’s defeat, the Renaissance, in the 2024 legislative elections.

The left attributes the impasse to the concentration of presidential power and the austerity policies that reduced popular support to the government.

Since September, trade union mobilizations and demonstrations in defense of public services have been held throughout the country, without any response from the Elisha Palace. According to Mélenchon, “postponing the solution will only aggravate the crisis” and “France needs a clear, democratic and popular decision.”

Amid the president’s silence, the pressure for the dissolution of the National Assembly grows between parliamentarians and social movements. To the left, Macron has lost the political conditions of rule and should allow the French people to decide the country’s future at the polls.