France's Premier Sébastien Lecornu Tenders Resignation After Less Than a Month in the Role

The French Premier Lecornu has stepped down, less than a day after his ministers was presented.

The Elysée palace made the announcement after Lecornu met President Emmanuel Macron for an meeting on Monday morning.

This surprising decision comes only less than a month after Lecornu was named premier following the collapse of the prior administration of his predecessor.

Political factions in the National Assembly had sharply condemned the structure of his ministerial team, which was largely unchanged to Bayrou's, and promised to block its approval.

Calls for Early Elections and Government Instability

Several parties are now clamouring for a snap election, with others calling for the President to also leave office - despite the fact that he has repeatedly stated he will not resign before his mandate concludes in the year 2027.

"The President needs to pick: dissolution of parliament or leaving office," said Sébastien Chenu, one of leading figures of the RN party.

The outgoing PM - the ex-defense chief and a Macron loyalist - was France's fifth prime minister in a two-year span.

Context of Government Crisis

French politics has been very volatile since mid-2024, when sudden national voting resulted in a hung parliament.

This has created challenges for each PM to obtain required votes to approve legislation.

The previous administration was defeated in last month after parliament declined to support his spending cuts plan, which aimed to slash government spending by 44 billion euros.

Financial Pressures and Market Reaction

The nation's budget gap stood at 5.8 percent of economic output in the current year and its public debt is 114% of GDP.

That is the third highest public debt in the euro area after Italy and Greece, and equivalent to almost 50,000 euros per person.

Markets declined in the Paris exchange after the announcement about the PM emerged on Monday.