France – The next prime minister resigns

Prime Minister resigns

This is a sad record: Sébastien Lecornu, appointed by President Macron less than a month ago, has already resigned as Prime Minister today. In recent days, it had already become apparent that he would receive little support from the left, meaning that a stable majority in parliament was not in sight for him. Most recently, there were also reports that the appointments to the most important cabinet posts announced yesterday were met with resistance from the Republicans, who threatened to leave the government. This would have further reduced Lecornu's backing in parliament.

Against this backdrop, Lecornu obviously saw no way of pushing ahead with the urgently needed consolidation of public finances. His two predecessors had already failed in their efforts to reduce the budget deficit and thus slow the rise in the national debt ratio due to resistance from parliament. Given the three roughly equal camps in parliament, the centrist parties, to which the last three prime ministers belonged, either need the support of Marine Le Pen's right-wing nationalist RN or the votes of at least part of the left-wing camp. However, negotiations with the Socialists, who belong to this camp, remained inconclusive last week due to the question of the pace of consolidation and the measures to be taken to achieve it – whether to focus on spending cuts or higher taxes. The talks were also complicated by the fact that the Socialists continue to push for a reversal of the pension reform.

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