Emmanuel Macron

October 16, 2025 5:46 PM

French PM survives no-confidence votes after making pension concession

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes in parliament on Thursday, winning crucial backing from the Socialist Party thanks to his pledge to suspend President Emmanuel Macron’s contested pension reform. The two motions presented by the hard-left France Unbowed and the far-right National Rally (RN) secured just 271 and 144 votes respectively - well short of the 289 votes needed to bring down Lecornu's days-old government. Lecornu's offer to mothball the pension...

October 10, 2025 7:53 PM

France’s Macron holds crunch talks with party chiefs as deadline to name a PM nears

President Emmanuel Macron welcomed mainstream political leaders to a crunch meeting at the Elysee ahead of a self-imposed late-Friday deadline to name a new prime minister, as the country's central bank chief warned political turmoil was sapping growth. Macron, 47, is searching for his sixth prime minister in under two years and will need to find a figure whose appeal spans the centre-right to centre-left in order to steer the budget for 2026 through a fragmented and fractious parliament. Ahea...

October 7, 2025 4:15 PM

Election calls heap pressure on Macron to end political crisis

France's President Emmanuel Macron faced deepening pressure on Tuesday to hold a snap parliamentary election or even resign to end political chaos in the euro zone's second biggest economy that has forced the resignation of five prime ministers in less than two years. The 47-year-old president, who was seen this week wandering alone beside the river Seine deep in thought, has repeatedly said he will see out his second term, which ends in 2027. But resignation calls, long confined to the fringe...

October 7, 2025 9:39 AM

Macron wanders alone by the Seine as grip on his future slips away

Hours after his latest prime minister was forced to resign — unable to form a cabinet that lasted more than a day — French President Emmanuel Macron was spotted walking alone by the Seine in the chilly autumn morning. Bodyguards kept their distance ahead and behind as he wandered out through a wrought iron gate onto the stone embankment in a black overcoat. The scene, captured from afar on video and shown on French TV, evoked images of Charles de Gaulle seeking solace in the wind-swept pla...

October 6, 2025 11:01 PM

Macron tasks his outgoing PM with holding last-ditch talks to end crisis

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday tasked his outgoing prime minister, who had resigned earlier in the day, to hold last-ditch talks with other political parties to try and chart a path out of the crisis. Sebastien Lecornu had tendered his government's resignation only hours after announcing his cabinet line-up, making it the shortest-lived administration in modern French history and deepening the country's political crisis. It was not immediately clear what Lecornu's task would entail...

September 10, 2025 4:07 PM

France’s new prime minister takes office amid anti-government protests

Sebastien Lecornu, the loyalist picked by President Emmanuel Macron to be France's fifth prime minister in two years, took office on a day of sprawling anti-government protests on Wednesday that underlined the depth of the country's political crisis. Lecornu, a conservative Macron protege who most recently served as his defence minister, arrived at the prime minister's residence at midday where he met with former Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who was ousted by parliament on Monday over plans ...

September 10, 2025 12:58 PM

France’s Emmanuel Macron names loyalist Sebastien Lecornu as new prime minister

French President Emmanuel Macron named loyalist Sebastien Lecornu, a one-time conservative protege who rallied behind his 2017 presidential run, as prime minister on Tuesday, defying expectations he might tack towards the left. The choice of Lecornu, 39, indicates Macron's determination to press on with a minority government that will not rip up his pro-business reform agenda, under which taxes on business and the wealthy have been cut and the retirement age raised. However, in an unusual move...

September 9, 2025 2:15 PM

France’s Macron seeks new prime minister after government’s collapse

French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking his fifth prime minister in less than two years after opposition parties united to kick out centre-right Prime Minister Francois Bayrou over his unpopular plans for budget tightening. Bayrou, handed a 364-194 defeat in a parliamentary confidence vote on Monday, will officially hand in his resignation to Macron during Tuesday. Whoever Macron picks to succeed him will face the near impossible task of uniting parliament and finding ways to get a budget ...

September 9, 2025 10:08 AM

Stalemate or surrender: France’s Macron is left with no good options

The challenge French President Emmanuel Macron faces in choosing his fifth prime minister in under two years lays bare the depth of a political crisis that in many ways is of his own making, and one with no clear path out. Francois Bayrou is set to tender his resignation as prime minister on Tuesday, a day after parliament voted to bring down the government over its plans for taming the budget deficit. Bayrou's predecessor, Michel Barnier, had suffered the same fate over his fiscal plans only ...

September 9, 2025 9:46 AM

French parliament ousts prime minister, deepening political crisis

France's parliament brought down the government on Monday over its plans to tame the ballooning national debt, deepening a political crisis that is weakening the euro zone's second-largest economy. Lawmakers voted to oust Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and his minority government with 364 votes against the veteran centrist politician and 194 in his favour. President Emmanuel Macron, who is facing calls from the opposition to dissolve parliament and resign, will instead hunt for his fifth p...