How ＂abstract＂ is this short-lived government in France： ＂cutting a seat＂ cuts a loneliness, and forming a cabinet is like ＂playing house＂
On the morning of October 6th, the absurdity of French politics reached a peak not seen in decades.
In the early morning of Paris time, French Prime Minister Lecornu went to the presidential palace to meet with President Macron. At 9 o’clock, the presidential palace issued a press release and Lecornu resigned.
On October 6, 2025, local time, French Prime Minister Lecornu resigned. Vision china diagram
At this time, it was only 27 days since he became prime minister, and only 14 hours after he announced his government members.
In his resignation speech, Lecornu said that the conditions he needed as prime minister were no longer available, and all political parties began to prepare for the presidential election in 2027 for their own selfish interests, without putting national interests first. These attacks are clearly directed, and the specific attacker will be explained in detail below.
This is the shortest-lived government in the history of the Fifth Republic of France. The last short-lived government dates back to 1958 in the Fourth Republic. At that time, France was in deep constitutional crisis because of the Algerian war. In the Fourth Republic with parliamentary system, Pierre Pliem’s government was strongly opposed by French troops in Algeria and colonialists as soon as it was established. They were worried that Pliem might negotiate with Algerian nationalists. The military threatened a coup, which triggered the crisis in May 1958. Unable to control the situation, Pliem resigned in just 14 days and gave way to Charles de Gaulle. The latter conveniently buried the Fourth Republic and opened the history of the Fifth Republic.
The reason why it takes pen and ink to tell this story is because France is now in such a serious constitutional crisis. Since Macron’s disastrous dissolution of parliament in July last year, the split parliament elected by the French people has completely paralyzed the power structure stipulated in the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, leaving French politics in an idle state that continues to this day.
Later on the 6th, the Presidential Palace said that Macron had given Lecornu the latest deadline until the 8th, hoping to finally try to reach an agreement. Lecornu said that even if an agreement could be reached, he would not be the prime minister himself.
In the media docking group of the Presidential Palace, a reporter asked: "Why did Macron accept Lecornu’s resignation in the morning and said in the afternoon that he hoped that he would make one last effort? Can you explain this? "
The press officers in the presidential palace did not respond.
October 6 can be said to be the epitome of political chaos in France in recent months. French politicians, all of whom are full of doctrine and business, can only suffer from the French people and the increasingly uncontrollable debt problem.
An absurd day in history
Since the resignation of the Prime Minister in the early morning of the 6th, what happened and what the people involved said were more outrageous than one.
However, to explain why the Prime Minister rushed to resign early in the morning, we must first talk about the "abstract" government he proposed on the evening of the 5th. As the third prime minister appointed by Macron in the past year, Lecornu watched the previous two governments being ruthlessly overthrown by the parliament, and put a low profile at the beginning of his tenure.
At the handover ceremony, Lecornu promised that he would completely "resign" from previous governments. The far-left and far-right political parties naturally have little patience with the Prime Minister appointed by Macron, but his speech has made other political parties have some expectations. Under the guiding ideology of "cutting the seat", it took Lecornu nearly a month to say that he would announce the candidate for the new government before the end of last week.
Before the list of government members was announced, two former prime ministers in Macron’s camp, Philip and Attar, released news that Lecornu had invited them, but they refused. The message is clear: both of them have a clear ambition to run for the presidency in 2027. At this time, any relationship with the government of Lecornu, or Macron, is a political negative asset, so naturally they will stand up early and get rid of it.
When the first batch of government members were finally announced on the evening of the 5 th, the ruling and opposition parties were in an uproar.
Among the 18 ministers announced, 13 were ministers of Bayrou’s government, which had collapsed before, and even their positions remained unchanged, with a coincidence rate of 72%. The author’s first reaction at that time was unbelievable, which was completely redefining "cutting the seat".
To make matters worse, instead of Lecornu’s defense minister, it turned out to be Macron’s "economic czar" and lemerre, who has been in charge of the French Ministry of Finance for more than seven years. This is completely take all the French as a fool.
Starting from Banier, all the prime ministers and ministers are publicizing to the public how serious the French debt crisis is and how urgent the problem is. In this case, Lecornu surprised everyone by bringing back the former finance minister who was mainly responsible for this poor financial situation into the government.
French public opinion is in an uproar, and even Lecornu’s own minister can’t stand it.
Bruno Retaillau, the interior minister from the right-wing Republican Party, said on the evening of 5th that the "resignation" promised by the government and Lecornu was totally different, and an internal meeting of the Republican Party would be held the next morning. The implication is that the Republican Party may withdraw from this government.
This is the direct reason why Lecornu said in his resignation speech that he no longer has the conditions to be prime minister. Originally, Lecornu’s Macron camp did not occupy the majority in the parliament. If the Republican Party, as an ally, withdraws again at this time, the downfall will be a matter of minutes.
At noon on the 6th, Lecornu just insinuated Retaillau in his speech, and the latter made a positive response on the midday news of French TV 1. He didn’t feel responsible for the collapse of the government, and accused Lecornu of not revealing that lemerre would be returned to the government during his one-and-a-half-hour meeting. It is absurd to let such a person, who can almost represent Macron’s economic policy, enter the "cut-off" government, so he decided to lead the Republican Party out of the government.
Of course, this is the truth, but such an obvious political struggle always gives people a sense of playing house.
In the afternoon, things became even more bizarre. At 5 o’clock, lemerre sent a message saying that he had submitted his resignation to Macron. He said that his decision to join the government triggered some "incomprehensible mistakes and exaggerated reactions", so he decided to quit the government to avoid hindering the normal operation of the country for his own personal reasons.
But at this time, this government no longer exists, and it is unheard of in modern French political history to publicly withdraw from a government that no longer exists.
It can be said that the French people are tired after all kinds of inexplicable things all day. According to the poll conducted by Ifop for LCI TV station published on 6th, 66% of French people want Macron to dissolve the parliament and re-elect. Everyone can see that it is difficult for anyone to break the deadlock in this three-legged parliament. It is better to dissolve it as soon as possible than to survive.
Macron has become a "political poison"
When the Presidential Palace announced the latest deadline for Lecornu to reach the 8th on the evening of 6th, it also indicated that if the government could not be formed by then, Macron would take its own responsibility.
What does this sentence mean? There are different opinions. It can be the dissolution of parliament, the appointment of a leftist prime minister, or even the resignation of Macron. Of course, at this stage, the possibility of Macron’s resignation is slim. After all, his term of office will expire in 2027. As long as he lasts until the end of next year or even next summer, France will enter a new round of presidential campaign cycle, and he can step down safely.
At the same time, only a few weeks ago, France experienced the historic prison sentence of former President Nicolas Sarkozy. If Macron, the current president, resigns in office, the system of the Fifth Republic will be really sacrosanct, which will bring irreparable harm to the French political system.
However, there is no doubt that Macron is fully responsible for the French financial crisis and political crisis.
The tax cuts introduced after Macron’s election victory in 2017 are the direct reason why French debt is out of control. On the 6th, the Paris stock market opened down more than 2%. At the end of June, France’s government debt has reached 115.6% of GDP, exceeding the red line of 115.5% set in this year’s budget, not to mention now.
It has been October, but France has not even proposed a budget, which has further damaged the national credit.
The decision made by Macron last July is the direct reason why France is now mired in political quagmire. He is now a "political poison", and the two former prime ministers mentioned above, Philip and Atal, have consciously cut with him.
Artal, a political star trained by Macron, blasted Macron directly on the evening news column of French TV 1 on the evening of 6th, saying that he, like many the French, had never understood Macron’s decision since last July.
It can be said that I have never seen a French president who personally destroyed all his political legacy like Macron. Macron, who has become a loner, has only himself to blame.
Contributed by The Paper Xu Xiaofei
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