French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to address a state dinner at a guildhall in London, UK on July 9, 2025. President Emmanuel Macron and Mrs. Bridget Macron are visiting the UK for France’s first state visit in 17 years. They stayed at Windsor Castle, hosted by Charles III and Queen Camilla.
Leon Neil | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Prime Minister Sebastian Lecorgne’s resignation shows that the current crisis in the French government is different from previous crisis. This is because this time, not the opposition parties but the major allies of the government worked hard to overthrow the government.
Since then, there has been a broader trend in which allies are hostile to French President Emmanuel Macron. This trend has accelerated further this week, with the president’s own former prime ministers appearing one after another and criticising the president for his response to a political impasse that has involving the Diet.
The most notable criticism comes from Gabriel Atal, formerly a pupil of Macron and the youngest prime minister in history, appointed in early 2024.
He lost his job just months after Macron decided to hold a general election in June 2024, blinding even some close allies, including Atal, who have gradually become distancing from his leadership.
Atal, who now leads Macron’s centrist group in Congress, told TV on Monday night that “like many French people, I don’t understand the president’s decision anymore,” adding that he is giving the president a “some kind of ruthlessness, the impression he wants to maintain control.”
French Prime Minister Gabriel Atal addressed the first results of the second vote in the French parliamentary elections in Matignon, Paris on July 7, 2024.
Ludwig Marin | AFP | Getty Images
And on Tuesday morning, Edouard Phillip, the first prime minister of Macron’s first three years of office, spoke about “a disastrous political tactic” and “a political crisis that bothers and makes our fellow citizens worried and discouraged,” shockingly called for the early election to be held.
He added, “I’m not going to drag anything I’ve experienced over the past six months for another 18 months. That’s too long.” In his view, the crisis is “not mere chronicles, dances of attitude and ambition, it is a national crisis.”
It was Elizabeth Born’s turn on Tuesday evening.
As prime minister from May 2022 to January 2024, she has laid out what could be both a way to resolve the current crisis and annul the Macron legacy, suggesting the possibility of aborting the infamous pension reform.
Borne served as head of the government during a tough period of negotiations and protests over controversial reforms that raised the minimum pension age from 62 to 64.
Despite being adopted several years ago, the reform remains a lightning rod for French politics, with both the left and far-right demanding revisions, if not completely abolished.
The reform freeze could open the way for negotiations with the Socialist Party, which aims to avoid the dissolution of the parliament. But revoking the totem reforms of President Macron’s mission would be very symbolic.
Perhaps it would be the sacrifice necessary to avoid a more serious crisis and harmful spiral for French politics and institutions that would likely be Macron’s worst legacy.
