The resignation of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu is the most dramatic escalation yet in the great French standoff, a debilitating stalemate between the executive and legislative branches of government. The event shows that neither side is willing to blink, even if it means plunging the country into total paralysis.
On one side is President Emmanuel Macron, who continues to assert his presidential prerogative to appoint ministers and set the government’s direction. His approval of Lecornu’s “largely unchanged” cabinet was a signal that he would not bow to parliamentary pressure to change his course.
On the other side is the National Assembly, which, without a presidential majority, has discovered its immense power to obstruct. The unified rejection of Lecornu’s cabinet was a clear message from the legislature: we will not approve any government that does not meet our demands.
Lecornu was the man caught in the middle of this standoff, a political go-between who was destroyed by the conflict he was meant to resolve. His departure signifies a complete breakdown in communication and compromise between the two pillars of the French state.
This stalemate is now more entrenched than ever. Three prime ministers have been sacrificed in this conflict, and there is no sign of a truce. As long as this great standoff continues, France will remain in a state of political limbo, a country with a government that cannot govern and a parliament that will not permit it to.