France’s former prime minister Édouard Philippe has urged President Emmanuel Macron to appoint a new head of government to secure a budget and then call an early presidential election to resolve the country’s deepening political turmoil.
Philippe’s comments come after Sébastien Lecornu, France’s third prime minister in a year, resigned on Monday when his attempt to form a government collapsed. Macron has asked him to prepare a last-ditch stability plan by Wednesday, but support for the president appears to be weakening even among his allies.
Philippe, who served as prime minister from 2017 to 2020 and now leads the centrist Horizons party, said he was “not in favour of his immediate and abrupt resignation”, but insisted the president must “live up to his mandate”.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Attal, who headed Macron’s Renaissance party and briefly served as prime minister in 2024, said on national television that he “no longer understands the decisions made by the president of the republic.” He added, “I think we should try something else,” calling for Macron to share power with other political groups.
Until recently, calls for Macron’s resignation came mainly from opposition parties on the radical left and hard right, but the latest interventions from his former allies underscore the growing crisis engulfing his presidency.
The president, who has been in office since 2017, was seen walking alone by the River Seine in Paris on Monday, trailed by his security detail, as the political unrest intensified. His entourage said he would “take responsibility” if Lecornu’s efforts failed, though they did not clarify what that would entail.
Macron’s centrist bloc lost its parliamentary majority after a snap election he called following a setback in last year’s European Parliament vote, leaving his administration struggling to maintain control amid rising dissent.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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