The new French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, handed over the resignation of his government to President Emmanuel Macron this morning - the President accepted it, according to an official Elysee statement. "Mr. Sébastien Lecornu handed over the resignation of his government to the President of the Republic, who accepted it," the AP reported.
The decision comes shortly after Lecornu publicly presented the composition of his cabinet on Sunday evening. He was due to deliver a programme speech to the French National Assembly on Tuesday. According to Reuters, the new cabinet reshuffle prompted immediate political reactions, with a number of opposition parties signalling in advance that they were ready to explore the possibility of a no-confidence vote.
According to news agencies, Lecornu resigned within hours of his cabinet appointment. The moves were motivated by a rapid escalation of political criticism, internal divisions and the threat of a unified response from some opposition blocs. The situation thus created a short-term political vacuum and left ministers in office only in transition mode, AFP reported.
The event has already had immediate economic consequences: the financial markets reacted nervously, with the CAC 40 index falling and the euro weakening against the dollar. Analysts point out that repeated changes of governments in recent months have increased uncertainty for domestic and foreign capital and complicated Paris' ability to pursue stable economic policies, Bloomberg reported.
What's next? President Macron is now faced with a choice - he can entrust the formation of a new government to a different leadership, keep the current ministers in office in a transitional mode, or call new elections if the political fragmentation in the National Assembly continues to make a stable majority impossible. Opposition voices, including on the far right and parts of the left, are already calling for extraordinary steps or strengthening the mandate through elections, Reuters reported; meanwhile, the president's team is calling for "calm and stages" in finding a solution.
The resignation of Sébastien Lecorne is a quick and dramatic outcome of the tensions that arose after the announcement of the new cabinet. The official acceptance of the resignation by the president has been confirmed by Elysee, while news sites are highlighting the political and market backlash and the difficulty of governing in a divided parliament.
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