Seven Prime Ministers and Counting
Emmanuel Macron has a long line of prime ministers behind him since he ascended to power in 2017, and in recent months, this has provoked considerable political turmoil in France. On October 10th, 2025, after having spent twenty-six days in office, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu submitted his resignation, marking the seventh failed government under Macron’s recent leadership. The French government has experienced extensive reshuffling, producing a political deadlock in the “Assemblée Nationale” and plunging France into a political crisis which has left the majority of French people “confused and fed up.”
The crisis, which became more pronounced after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been impacted by both international and national events, with many citizens growing increasingly concerned about their nation’s stance on social justice and climate change issues. The 2024 snap elections called up by Macron saw the breakup of his accords with the conservative Republicans. This political move left him looking for support from left-wing parties, which was a big risk to him as many have been calling for his resignation. His loss of support on both sides of the spectrum is highly significant because there is a short list of those who would want to work with him as his prime minister for a variety of reasons, most notably due to the parliamentary tendency to cast votes of no confidence on prime ministers when faced with push back from the public.
Since the start of the pandemic, much like the rest of the world, the French government had to enter crisis mode. After Edouard Philippe quit in July of 2022, the subsequent Prime Ministers were presented with a divided political system. On September 10, 2025, Sebastien Lecornu was appointed as Macron’s seventh prime minister since his first prime minister, Edouard Philipe, stepped down from the post in July 2020. This made Edouard the longest serving prime minister under Macron. The sudden loss of Lecornu as prime minister created a lot of political turmoil as it left Macron scrambling to solve the issue. Lecornu’s resignation was a shock to everyone as it was announced just twelve hours after his key cabinet members were appointed. Lecornu became the shortest-lived prime minister in modern French history through his resignation, an interesting role to be placed in as the French political system becomes increasingly divided. The division has been part of the reason that Macron has seen a rapid loss in power since the 2022 elections, where he lost the majority vote and was forced to form a coalition government to stay in power. In 2024, when he called an early legislative election, the division was solidified into three different ideological blocs: Macron’s centre-right alliance, the left and Marie Le Pen’s far right RNs.
This politician crisis works hand in hand with the extensive history that France has with civil protests the decisions from the government. The French have a strong protest culture which has increased as the political crisis continues to affect more areas of society. In recent years, the Bloquons tous and Gillet Jeuns movements have been especially active in protesting the actions of Macron’s government. Both are social movements of primarily young French people that arose online, fighting for a variety of reasons, including increases in taxes and decreases in national pensions. Bloquons-Tous launched on social media in July of this year as the nation’s anger over the newly released 2026 budget draft was released. The draft, which was drawn up by ousted Prime Minister Bayrou, “ includes scrapping two national holidays, freezing pensions and cutting 5 billion euros from health spending.” The movement is being compared to “gilet jaunes” because of the nature of how it began: not being led by a union or by a political party. Both have conducted some of the most successful political demonstrations which France has seen in years.
Part of the unpopular pension reforms which have been occurring recently and have aided the movements to close the age gap is the possible increase in retirement age, from 62 to 64. This issue has angered many in the parliament and some such as Olivier Faure of the socialist party who has stated that “since we’ve not been given any guarantees, we won’t give any guarantee [ to back the prime minister] in a vote of confidence.” This quote is a direct demonstration of how Macron has been at risk of losing support from both sides of the political spectrum. The ideological breakdown of the parliament has caused uproars across the political spectrum, as allies and opponents of the prime ministers denounce the cabinet to be either too right wing or not enough, which in turn leads towards talks about toppling the new government.
Macron’s prime ministers have been faced with a lot of unprecedented changes since 2022, including a significant increase in political unrest and division as well as a notable decrease in support from their political allies. Recent poll numbers have shown Macron’s popularity at an all-time low, demonstrating that maybe the rotating door of prime ministers in a bid to maintain political support is not the way to go. He is currently fighting to keep his political legitimacy intact as some parties and many in the public have called for Macron to resign, ahead of his term’s end in Spring of 2027.
Emmanuel Macron has been a key player in French politics for the majority of the past two decades, with the last few years being over shadowed by significant political strife, and leaving the French public and international observers with the question of who will be next in coming up for the challenge as President of the French Republic.
Image courtesy of Haldu via Wikimedia Commons ©2025. Some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
