Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, François Bayrou, Sébastien Lecornu… Since his re-election three years ago Emmanuel Macron’s collection of failed Prime Ministers has only gotten larger, with his support in the polls dwindling down to 16 per cent after the latest resignation.
With no clear majority in the National Assembly after legislative elections in 2024, the country is stuck in a political deadlock with three potential outcomes: (A) a new Prime Minister and government, (B) snap legislative elections for France’s National Assembly, or (C) Macron’s resignation and snap presidential elections. Aside from the fact that I have a jar of jam and a block of feta in my fridge that outlasted Lecornu’s stay in office, watching the current state of politics in my home country has been like watching an inevitable train wreck — only I can no longer tell where the train is going to crash and who will be driving when it does.
Each resignation circles back to the same question: how long can Macron keep insisting everything is under control? When even his chosen PMs can’t last a day, it’s hard not to wonder whether the problem lies at the top. Since the beginning of his mandate, his policies have made little sense. Despite some of his very right-leaning policies, he has always claimed the centre; “a little of this, a little of that” to appeal to as many people as possible which has now led to all sides of the political spectrum turning on him. His insistence on following his own vision has often come at the expense of listening to the electorate, which spoke a year ago.
While the 2024 elections didn’t designate a clear majority able to form an effective government, the biggest political block remains the leftist coalition, with 194 seats. Despite this, Macron has refused to name a PM from the left. At this point, the cracks in Macron’s presidency are hard to miss. His policies crumble more with every crisis, and Lecornu’s 14 hour government takes the prize for the shortest episode yet. The credits roll, the cast changes (barely), but the story stays the same: a president trapped in his own political script. Hours ago, the president’s staff seemed to say that his next move would be to just nominate another PM in the coming days. But that will do little to solve the root of the problem. Several parties have announced that they will keep censoring Macron’s picks for PM until he hands in his resignation.
I can’t see a resignation wholly fixing anything, especially at this stage, as the potential pool of candidates looks either unprepared or is cause for concern. According to numerous polls from the last few weeks, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party would lead the first round with around 34-35 per cent of the votes. The rest of the French political parties? Left in the dust, with the central block collecting 12-16 per cent of votes, and the left closely behind with 12-14 per cent of voting intentions. I can imagine little good for France’s political crisis coming from the party that was recently charged with embezzling European Union funds — regardless if its candidate is Marine Le Pen or her protégé, Jordan Bardella. One thing is for certain, no matter what move Macron makes next, he has already laid the final bricks on the highway that will lead Le Pen’s party into office at the next elections.
“Cérémonie militaire à l’Ecole polytechnique le 14 10 2022, présidée par Sébastien Lecornu, ministre des armées” by Ecole polytechnique / Paris / France is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, François Bayrou, Sébastien Lecornu… Since his re-election three years ago Emmanuel Macron’s collection of failed Prime Ministers has only gotten larger, with his support in the polls dwindling down to 16 per cent after the latest resignation.
With no clear majority in the National Assembly after legislative elections in 2024, the country is stuck in a political deadlock with three potential outcomes: (A) a new Prime Minister and government, (B) snap legislative elections for France’s National Assembly, or (C) Macron’s resignation and snap presidential elections. Aside from the fact that I have a jar of jam and a block of feta in my fridge that outlasted Lecornu’s stay in office, watching the current state of politics in my home country has been like watching an inevitable train wreck — only I can no longer tell where the train is going to crash and who will be driving when it does.
Each resignation circles back to the same question: how long can Macron keep insisting everything is under control? When even his chosen PMs can’t last a day, it’s hard not to wonder whether the problem lies at the top. Since the beginning of his mandate, his policies have made little sense. Despite some of his very right-leaning policies, he has always claimed the centre; “a little of this, a little of that” to appeal to as many people as possible which has now led to all sides of the political spectrum turning on him. His insistence on following his own vision has often come at the expense of listening to the electorate, which spoke a year ago.
While the 2024 elections didn’t designate a clear majority able to form an effective government, the biggest political block remains the leftist coalition, with 194 seats. Despite this, Macron has refused to name a PM from the left. At this point, the cracks in Macron’s presidency are hard to miss. His policies crumble more with every crisis, and Lecornu’s 14 hour government takes the prize for the shortest episode yet. The credits roll, the cast changes (barely), but the story stays the same: a president trapped in his own political script. Hours ago, the president’s staff seemed to say that his next move would be to just nominate another PM in the coming days. But that will do little to solve the root of the problem. Several parties have announced that they will keep censoring Macron’s picks for PM until he hands in his resignation.
I can’t see a resignation wholly fixing anything, especially at this stage, as the potential pool of candidates looks either unprepared or is cause for concern. According to numerous polls from the last few weeks, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party would lead the first round with around 34-35 per cent of the votes. The rest of the French political parties? Left in the dust, with the central block collecting 12-16 per cent of votes, and the left closely behind with 12-14 per cent of voting intentions. I can imagine little good for France’s political crisis coming from the party that was recently charged with embezzling European Union funds — regardless if its candidate is Marine Le Pen or her protégé, Jordan Bardella. One thing is for certain, no matter what move Macron makes next, he has already laid the final bricks on the highway that will lead Le Pen’s party into office at the next elections.
“Cérémonie militaire à l’Ecole polytechnique le 14 10 2022, présidée par Sébastien Lecornu, ministre des armées” by Ecole polytechnique / Paris / France is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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