France’s new government under recently reappointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is facing fresh no-confidence motions, just a day after the new Cabinet was named and amid one of the country’s worst political crises in decades.
The motions, tabled by both the hard-left and far-right opposition groups on Monday, are expected to take place in the National Assembly as soon as Wednesday.
President Emmanuel Macron called on political forces to “work towards stability,” the news magazine L’Express reported.
“The political forces that worked to destabilize Sébastien Lecornu are solely responsible for this chaos,” Macron said upon his arrival at the Gaza peace summit in Egypt.
Mathilde Panot, leader of the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), announced that Green and Communist lawmakers had also joined the LFI’s motion of no confidence. “The country has no time to lose,” said Panot. “Lecornu will fall and Macron will follow him,” she said.
The far-right nationalist National Rally (RN) also tabled a motion of no confidence with Éric Ciotti’s right-wing splinter party – in a rare show of unity among the right in France.
The RN would also vote in favour of motions of no confidence tabled by other political groups, according to RN leader Jordan Bardella.
“It is in the national interest to stop Emmanuel Macron in his excesses,” Bardella said.
The new government was officially formed late on Sunday evening by Lecornu, who was brought back into office by Macron on Friday days after resigning.
Starting on Tuesday, the government policy statement is expected to be delivered. Lecornu’s two predecessors both failed over a budget dispute.