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The latest French government lasted just 18 hours as France's third prime minister in only a year resigned today. The two premiers before him were brought down in no-confidence votes. He didn't even get that far. The chaos has plunged France into a deepening political crisis. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu named the ministers who would have formed his government only last night. The opposition on the right and left threatened to bring it down in a no-confidence vote. But Lecornu resigned this morning before they even got the chance. He told the French it would have been impossible to govern and pass a budget.
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SEBASTIEN LECORNU: (Through interpreter) No one has a majority in parliament, yet no one wants to cede a thing. We need less ego, more humility and a spirit of compromise. You have to put the country before your party.
BEARDSLEY: France's fractured parliament is the result of snap legislative elections called a little over a year ago by President Emmanuel Macron in a risky move that saw him lose his center-right reformist majority. The National Assembly is now dominated by the far right and left, which both want a premier from their camp.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: There were two rounds of strikes and protests against Lecornu since Macron chose him as prime minister 27 days ago. Protesting union member Yusef Ahmad says Macron is ignoring the will of the people. They don't want his austerity budgets, he says.
YUSEF AHMAD: (Through interpreter) We've come out to remind the French government that the debt problem must not be resolved on the backs of the working class. Let's take the money where it is - from the rich and companies who benefit from tax cuts.
BEARDSLEY: Macron has asked Lecornu to find some way out of the crisis by Wednesday night, but analysts say the president has three options now. He can pick another prime minister, dissolve parliament and call new legislative elections or step down with a year and a half left in his term. Political scientist Corinne Mellul says Macron would never leave office, but picking another premier seems pointless, too.
CORINNE MELLUL: Attempting a fourth time to do exactly the same thing, to fix the same problem in the same way when it failed on three previous attempts...
BEARDSLEY: ...Is the definition of lunacy, she says. Some say Macron could name a premier from the center-left Socialist Party and try to build a coalition with the center-right. But Mellul says that would mean sacrificing his free-market, probusiness agenda.
MELLUL: The socialists would demand that the retirement reform be either totally scrapped or changed in a way that would completely erase the intention. And then the, you know, tax-the-rich thing. These are the two symbolic victories that the socialists would demand, and it would mean - I think for Macron it would mean complete defeat.
BEARDSLEY: Mellul says picking a prime minister from the far right is out of the question for Macron. The National Rally seems to be licking its chops at Macron's latest misfortunes. Leader Marine Le Pen lost to Macron twice in presidential elections. But today, her party is the largest in parliament and the most popular in France, with around 33% support.
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MARINE LE PEN: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "We're at the end of the road," she said. "We have to stop the absurdity of naming prime minister after prime minister and go back to the ballot box and let the French people decide." The French stock market dropped on news of the prime minister's resignation, and French borrowing costs have risen to their highest level in over a decade. Meanwhile, the country waits to see what its unpopular and increasingly isolated president will do. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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