French prime minister Lecornu faces further attempts to topple his government
France could sink deeper into political crisis when the prime minister faces two attempts in Parliament to topple his fragile new government, which could leave President Emmanuel Macron with no palatable option other than calling snap legislative elections.
Legislators in the National Assembly, the powerful but deeply divided lower house, will on Thursday vote on no-confidence motions filed by Mr Macron’s fiercest opponents,the hard-left France Unbowed party and Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally and her allies in Parliament.
If prime minister Sebastien Lecornu survives, it could be close.
Should the ally of Mr Macron fall, the president has signalled through a government spokeswoman that he could dissolve the National Assembly rather than name a replacement for Mr Lecornu.
He resigned as prime minister last week only for Mr Macron to re-appoint him again four days later.
The outcome of legislative elections that would follow any National Assembly dissolution is uncertain.
But Ms Le Pen’s party, already the largest in the National Assembly, believes that it is poised to make strong gains, possibly putting the National Rally in government for the first time should Mr Macron take that route again, having tried it once before in June 2024.
Here is a closer look at the high-stake no-confidence votes:
Ms Le Pen has for weeks been campaigning hard for fresh legislative elections, buoyed by polls that suggest that the National Rally could capitalise, as it did after the last dissolution in 2024.
Ms Le Pen and her right-wing ally Eric Ciotti filed their censure motion the morning after the newly re-appointed prime minister named his new Cabinet on Sunday.
It says that dissolving the National Assembly “is the most efficient and most democratic way to get our country out of the dead end”.
The France Unbowed censure motion, also filed on Monday morning, argues that toppling Mr Lecornu could help spur the ousting of Mr Macron, too, even though the French leader has said that he has no intention of cutting short his second and last presidential term that ends in 2027.
“The resignation or the impeachment of Emmanuel Macron are the only solutions to offer a clear democratic outcome to the current chaos: a return to the ballot boxes. That way, the people will have the opportunity to turn the page on an authoritarian presidency,” the motion says.
A majority of the 577 National Assembly legislators need to vote against Mr Lecornu for him and his government to fall.
The National Assembly will convene at 9am local time on Thursday and the France Unbowed motion will be voted on first.
Alone, the National Rally and France Unbowed cannot reach the required number of 289.
Ms Le Pen’s party and its allied Union of the Right for the Republic led by Mr Ciotti together have 139 politicians.
On the other end of the political spectrum, France Unbowed has 71.
If they again pool votes despite their bitter ideological and personal rivalries, which they have done in the past, they will still need backing from other opposition politicians.
A left-wing of grouping of 38 politicians including the Ecologists says it also will vote against Mr Lecornu.
Many members of a smaller left-wing group of 17 politicians, in the large part communists, are also expected to follow suit.
But together, Mr Lecornu’s opponents could still find themselves dozens of votes short of 289.
There are some wildcards, however, and the outcome could still be close.
Mr Macron’s centrists are counting on support from their allies and for the opposition Socialists, with 69 politicians, and the conservative Republicans, with 50, to not vote against Mr Lecornu, because they could tip the outcome against him.
In a big carrot to the Socialists, Mr Lecornu this week announced that he will suspend an extremely unpopular change to France’s retirement age, gradually raising it from 62 to 64.
That flagship reform of Mr Macron’s second term could now be sacrificed to buy time for Mr Lecornu and some stability in the National Assembly as it sets to work on debating France’s budget for 2026, a priority for the European Union’s second-largest economy.
Even if Mr Lecornu survives, politicians could file more no-confidence motions against his government in the weeks ahead in what are expected to be fractious budget negotiations.
“It’s extremely precarious,” said Camille Bedock, a political scientist with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research.
“The chances of survival remain extremely thin.”
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