Four More Prime Ministers Till Christmas? France’s Leadership Reaches a Breaking Point
A French political déja vu: the prime minister has resigned, the President, Emmanuel Macron, is distressed, and the Fifth Republic is at its breaking point.
In 2022, Macron’s re-election and the legislative elections saw him win the presidency but lose control of Parliament, a contradiction the Fifth Republic was not designed to handle. This governing system, designed in 1958 to prevent instability, had been compromised. Losing an absolute majority in the French Parliament meant institutional fragility, as now, any substantial reform requires bipartisan support, which is extremely hard to secure. Any attempt to pass such legislation in the French parliament is now reason enough for a crisis. In June 2024, in hopes of ‘resetting’and creating stability, Macron dissolved the National Assembly. This dissolution had the opposite effect, triggering parliamentary elections that led to the collapse of his own parliamentary majority.
This chaos in parliament has made stability for Macron’s government an impossible task. The National Assembly is the very institution that determines the legitimacy of French prime ministers. Once the prime minister presents a government program, the deputies may introduce a motion de censure (vote of no confidence), ultimately forcing the prime minister’s resignation. This means that every time a government program is presented, the prime minister may be challenged or put into question, which forces them to absorb all political shock in the case of controversy. Since 2022, Macron has seen a constant rotation of prime ministers: Élisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, François Bayrou and now Sébastien Lecornu.
In September of 2025, Prime Minister François Bayrou lost the confidence vote, forcing his resignation. Lecornu, his successor, resigned very quickly, seeing no visible majority, only a day following his cabinet announcement, becoming one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in Fifth Republic history. Before returning to the post shortly after, on October 10.
This political instability has evolved into a legitimacy crisis. A government is considered legitimate if its citizens believe it can govern effectively and view it as deserving of respect. This definition is entirely contradictory to the current situation in France. According to a survey published in the French newspaper Les Echos, Macron’s approval rating has stood at 21 per cent since August 2025. Macron has emerged as a subject of public ridicule in France, highlighting how his government’s mismanagement has eroded citizens’ trust in their political system. This mockery includes memes published in French journals depicting Macron as a clown, especially after Macron’s decision to re-hire Lecornu on October 10. Slogans such as “we won’t change a team that loses,” and “Macron’s circus continues,” have flooded French journals. The mockery permeates the media, turning to television with famous French television host Yann Barthes, who titled his October 7 segment “Welcome to the circus” and hosted dressed as a clown to imitate President Macron. Additionally, social media has perpetuated this mockery; it has become a trend on TikTok and Instagram Reels to claim that there are “only four more Prime Ministers left till Christmas!”
This public mockery has become more than just humour. It is developing as an expression of French citizens’ growing anger toward their government as it continues to lose legitimacy. Simultaneous to Bayrou’s resignation, Lecornu’s resignation, and Lecornu’s comeback, nearly 600,000 French citizens participated in nationwide protests in October 2025, responding to trade union strikes demanding action against the proposed spending cuts for next year’s budget. The government cannot even respond to these civil outcries, seeing as budget cuts require negotiating with the multiple parties of the fragmented French parliament. The loss of trust and respect for the French government is evermore apparent, with these same protestors calling Macron “the president of the rich” who “thinks of himself as a kind of king.”
This mockery is a reflection and a symptom of broader issues emerging in France amid ongoing political instability. France is in the middle of an economic crisis; the national debt is estimated at 67 billion euros, the country’s largest deficit since World War II. Macron’s government has attempted to convince its constituents that the fiscal crisis is a national life-or-death matter. Still, it is no longer legitimate enough to make the French public believe it. Lecornu has the ‘mission impossible’ of proposing a new budget that must be passed by the end of the year. The challenge in this effort lies in the risk of disengagement from the other side of the fragmented parliament. Should the government fail to pass the budget, France will become ungovernable, unable to pay its bills. At this point, France has become a liability, not only to its own citizens but to the stability of the entire eurozone economy.
Macron’s loss of legitimacy has left France in a state of political, social, and economic turmoil, which has inevitably turned into a democratic crisis. It is no longer about who can or who is willing to lead; the debate now lies in whether the Fifth Republic can still command any legitimacy at all. This erosion of trust has become fuel for the resurgence of extremism, notably from Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, which has been using Macron’s instability to challenge electoral rules. The party has been watching from the sidelines, attempting to portray itself as the “antidote” that French citizens need. France’s political fragmentation has thus begun to mirror the wider European trend of a surge in affection for far-right populism. The question remains whether France’s leaders will last till Christmas.
Edited by Madeleine Glover
Featured image: French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu pictured at a military ceremony in 2022. “Cérémonie militaire à l’École polytechnique le 14 10 2022, présidée par Sébastien Lecornu, ministre des Armées” by École polytechnique / Paris / France is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
