France in turmoil: PM Lecornu quits after just weeks in office

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00:00Sebastien Le Connu has resigned as France's prime minister.

00:04The Ulises Palace announced on Monday, 6 October 2025, Le Connu's time in office lasted under a

00:12month. He stepped down after intense criticism of the cabinet he presented and after failing to win

00:20the necessary backing in the deeply fractured national assembly. His departure adds a fresh

00:27layer to the political crisis that has dug at President Emmanuel Macron since the snap elections.

00:34To underestimate how serious this is, France has gone through a rapid turnover of prime ministers

00:41over the past 18 months. President Macron appointed Gabriel Attal in January 2024, then Mikel Barnier

00:50in September 2024, followed by Francois Bergerou in December 2024, and Le Connu was appointed in

00:59September 2025 before resigning. That secession of leaders reflects the reality that no single

01:07party controls the assembly and that coalition building has repeatedly failed.

01:13Why did Le Connu fall so fast? Critics said the government he named looked too similar

01:21to its predecessor and did not offer the political renewal many demanded. Opposition parties from the

01:28left and the right signaled they would not back him. The several key parties made clear

01:34the preferred new elections or a very different policy direction. Le Connu himself pointed to uncompromising

01:42partisan stances and political ego as obstacles to forming a workable majority. Markets reacted

01:51quickly. Shares and the euro slipped amid worries about continued instability. What does this mean for

01:59President Macron? The choices are stark. Macron can appoint another prime minister and try again to build

02:06a coalition. It can dissolve the national assembly and call for fresh legislative elections. Or it can

02:14attempt political compromises that so far have proved elusive. Each option carries risks. More caretaker

02:22government would slow urgent decisions such as the budget while new elections could strengthen the far-right or

02:30the left. The left and further opened Macron's political agenda. Many commentators are now asking

02:36a family of hypothetical. Would France's politics and this crisis look different if Marine Le Pen had been

02:44president? Le Pen led the national rally as its prominent figure for years and ran for president in 2012,

02:522017 and 2022. Hardening up parties' base and shifting French politics to right during that period. Analysts

03:03won a Le Pen presidency would probably have produced sharper domestic polarization and market uncertainty,

03:11different covenants choices and different parliamentary tensions, though it's impossible to say whether it

03:18would have produced more or less institutional stability.