By Greg Oxley in Paris
The French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, appointed a few hours after the defeat of his predecessor, François Bayrou, on September 8, has now resigned, after less than four weeks, having proved incapable of forming a viable government.
The alliance between the Macronists and the right-wing “Republicans” which made up Marcron’s recent governments, has fallen apart. The Republicans want to distance themselves from Macronism, which is completely discredited, and will now probably move towards coming to an agreement with the far right Rassemblement National, led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
This means that Emmanuel Macron, the President, is in an even weaker position than before within the parliament, and has been faced with massive social discontent over recent weeks. Opinion polls on Macron’s popularity give him no more than 17%.
What will happen now? One possibility is that Macron will dissolve the National Assembly, which would mean calling legislative elections. However, there is no guarantee that a new parliament will not simply reproduce the present parliamentary stalemate in a slightly different form.
Otherwise, it may result in a majority for the Rassemblement National. Inherent in this situation is the possibility that Macron, whose term runs until 2027, may decide to resign.
On the left, this new turn in the social and political crisis has led to calls for a renewal of the alliance between La France Insoumise, (the left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon) the PCF, the Socialist Party, and the Greens, in order to be in a better position in the fight against the Rassemblement National.
We will carry a more detailed analysis in due course. See previous articles on France: December 24, here, July 20, here; September 11, here and September 24, here.
[Feature photograph of Emmanuel Macron from Wikimedia Commons, here.]
