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Sebastien Lecornu is the third French prime minister after a set of snap elections last year ended in a hung parliament and increased seats for the far right, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The premier resigned on Monday just hours after broad rejection of his new cabinet.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron convinced Lecornu to stay on until Wednesday evening to try to form a coalition government able to pass a much-needed austerity budget through parliament, with public debt at an all-time high.
Lercornu is expected to make a public statement on the state of discussions on Wednesday morning, before receiving representatives of the Socialist party.
Macron has said he would “assume his responsibilities” if this failed, appearing to mean early parliamentary elections.
Lecornu to make speech following resignation
French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu is due to appear shortly in the courtyard at the Matignon Palace.
You can follow the speech in the video feed below:
The Guardian has published an editorial on how the political deadlock in France may benefit the country’s far-right factions.
In Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1944 play No Exit, hell is portrayed as a locked room in which characters are condemned to fall out and squabble for all eternity. Ever since foolishly calling a snap election which delivered a deadlocked and divided national assembly, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has found himself trapped in a modern political version of the same plot.
On Monday morning, the third prime minister Mr Macron has appointed in just over a year became the latest to throw in the towel, after only 27 days in the job. Hours after unveiling his ministerial team, Sébastien Lecornu stood down following a backlash from centre-right allies, who objected to the number of carryovers from François Bayrou’s previous administration. By Monday evening, Mr Macron had persuaded Mr Lecornu to conduct a round of last-ditch negotiations to try to resolve the crisis. Should he fail, the president has hinted that the next step will be a second dissolution of parliament and fresh legislative elections.
Such dizzying chaos and dysfunction is bringing mainstream French politics into disrepute, at a time when Marine Le Pen’s far right National Rally enjoys a substantial lead in the polls. For this ominous state of affairs, Mr Macron bears a heavy responsibility. His centrist alliance lost its outright majority in the parliamentary elections of 2022, and was then defeated by a leftwing coalition in the snap poll he called last year. But he has ploughed on as if nothing had changed, pressuring successive prime ministers to propose unpopular austerity budgets without a mandate.
You can read the full editorial from the Guardian here: The Guardian view on political chaos in France: the gift that keeps on giving to Marine Le Pen and the far right
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of European news.
French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu will make a speech at 9.30am (8.30am British time) on Wednesday in the courtyard at the Matignon Palace, his office said in a statement.
Lecornu had said on Monday after announcing his resignation that he would hold a series of talks with political parties’ leaders by Wednesday.
The speech comes as the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, faces intense pressure to call snap parliamentary elections or resign as former allies join his opponents in demanding he act to end a spiralling political crisis in the EU’s second biggest economy.
Macron’s first prime minister on Tuesday urged the president to step down amid mounting frustration even within the president’s own camp over one of the worst spells of political chaos in France since the foundation of its Fifth Republic in 1958.
Édouard Philippe, prime minister from 2017 to 2020 and now leader of a Macron-allied party, said he should announce an early presidential election once a budget for next year was adopted.
Macron was re-elected in April 2022 for a five-year term, but since snap legislative elections in 2024 his appointees as prime minister have been unable to summon a parliamentary majority to pass a budget.
Stay with us for all the developments over the day.
