French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to reporters while gestures at the closing ceremony of the 7th European Political Community (EPC) summit held at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 2, 2025.
Ludwig Marin | AFP | Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a new major political headache following the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Sebastian Lecorne just 27 days in office.
The former defense minister and longtime ally, he resigned on Monday before announcing the newly launched administration plan, saying he could not lead a small number of centre-right governments after he expressed his willingness to compromise on their respective budgets and policy demands in consultations with opposing parties.
According to a comment translated by France24, Lecorgne said “parties behave as if they had gained their own majority in Parliament,” and that “the conditions are not met” for the renewal.
The crisis that France is facing is primarily created by President Macron, who confidently dissolved Parliament last year to bring “transparency” to the divided French National Assembly.
In the subsequent, undecided elections, both the Right and the Left won consecutive votes, leading to a power struggle and a political impasse that has continued ever since. Macron didn’t want to give government leadership to either side, and instead appointed supporters to lead minority governments, which proved vulnerable to no-confidence proposals from opposing parties.
The Recorgne administration was short-lived and became the third government to fail, following Michel Barnier and François Bailloux administrations. What these have in common is that they are struggling to reach agreements with other political parties over the national budget, particularly the expenditure cuts and tax increases needed to curb France’s fiscal deficit, reaching 5.8% of gross domestic product in 2024.
On Monday evening, Macron gave Lecornes another 48 hours to break the deadlock, in an unexpected turn of events to give him 48 hours of “final talks” with rival parties. Lecorne told the X that he would report to the president on Wednesday night about possible solutions “to make all the necessary conclusions.”
What will come next?
Macron is currently facing an enviable mission to decide what to do next, with no attractive option for a precarious president who has repeatedly stated he will not resign, but the move will trigger a new presidential election that is not currently scheduled to be implemented until 2027.
French President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech at the UN Summit on Palestinians held at the UN Headquarters during the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on September 22, 2025.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
He could potentially choose another prime minister, but he is the sixth person in France in less than two years, but choosing a prime minister who has fallen from his own political stability would be an uncomfortable and immoral outlook for Macron, who has repeatedly chosen government supporters as his government leader last year.
Alternatively, they could dissolve the parliament and hold a new parliamentary election. This option is also unattractive as Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant party, the “National Rally,” is currently leading the votes in voter polls, with the Left Coalition’s New People’s Front leading by around 32% of the votes.
Analysts say it is unlikely that Macron would choose to resign. “It’s too dangerous for him to do the right thing, and of course I’m not going to step out of power,” INSEAD political science professor Douglas Yates told CNBC Monday.
“One thing I can say today regarding security is that President Macron is not going to announce his resignation himself. So the easiest way would be to nominate another prime minister. Just like I would change my shirt, I could also nominate another prime minister if the new prime minister doesn’t last long, and that would be his institutional advantage.”
Yates didn’t expect Macron to hold a new election, and he thought that “the last election was so devastating” that the new poll would once again reflect the polarization of French politics, with a gap between far-left and far-right voters. “People will abandon his party and vote with all their heart, either on the left or right,” Yates added.
Is it left or right?
There is also speculation that Macron could take the plunge and be elected from the centre-left Socialist Party, and that he could nominate a prime minister who is not an ally from his own centre-politician’s backyard.
It is unlikely that Macron would choose a candidate for either the far-left party “France indomitable” or the far-right party “National Assembly”, and both parties demanded Macron’s dismissal on Monday.
On October 6th, 2025, Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Assembly faction, arrived at the party headquarters in Paris and gave a speech to reporters.
Thomas Samson | AFP | Getty Images
“To date he’s been choosing the wrong people. He’s alienated the left and right by choosing centrists,” Yates said.
“I think it would be better to throw fresh meat into the centre-left who can help him establish power and perhaps avoid a motion to blame, so I think the Socialist Party will probably be one of the most acceptable or Green Party candidates,” Yates said.
And what’s your budget?
Despite continuing political paralysis in Paris, the 2026 budget proposal remains in the air, with economists saying this year’s budget increasingly likely to be transferred to next year as a first aid measure.
Deutsche Bank’s Yasin Luimi said on Monday that if the government collapses like it is now, France will operate under special laws and “may maintain spending close to the 2025 framework, with the deficit reaching around 5.0-5.4% of GDP.”
“It is not impossible that a new election will take place anytime soon,” Luimi said.
If Macron chooses to choose a new prime minister from another political party, such as the Socialist Party, the reforms and expenditure cuts that have been planned and failed by the previous administration could be further fragmented and reduced.
In a comment sent via email Monday, Macron said “there could be appointing a prime minister from the centre-left (or even the far-right), but this could open the door to the painful retrograde of his previous growth-oriented structural reforms (such as an increase in pension age) and financial stalls.”
