Macron Urges Stability Despite Calls for Government Ouster

 

Macron Urges Stability Despite Calls for Government Ouster

 

President Emmanuel Macron of France is facing some of the country’s worst political turmoil in decades. A new government has been appointed, but how long it will last is anyone’s guess.

 

Aurelien Breeden

By Aurelien Breeden

Reporting from Paris

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/world/europe/macron-france-government.html

Oct. 13, 2025

 

President Emmanuel Macron of France urged French parties on Monday to calm a political crisis that has gripped the nation, and he rejected responsibility for the turbulence even as the country braced for the possibility that its newly appointed government might soon collapse.

 

Mr. Macron’s public comments on the turmoil were the first since Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, a centrist and close ally of Mr. Macron, resigned a week ago — only to be reappointed by the French president just days later, on Friday.

 

That move, which capped a week of chaos, infuriated Mr. Macron’s opponents, heralding even more instability as France struggles to pass a deficit-cutting budget by the end of the year.

 

“It is everyone’s duty to work toward stability, not to bet on instability,” Mr. Macron told reporters after landing in Egypt, where he was attending a summit on the peace process for Gaza, adding that he wanted France to “move forward in peace, stability, seriousness.”

 

That will be challenging.

 

Two parties — the National Rally, on the far right, and France Unbowed, on the far left — have already said they will file no-confidence motions against Mr. Lecornu, who is expected to deliver a key policy speech on Tuesday in the 577-seat lower house of Parliament.

 

Other opposition parties have suggested support for such motions, bringing Mr. Lecornu dangerously close to the 288 votes currently required to topple him.

 

The lower house is deadlocked among three main blocs: a collection of left-wing parties; a mix of conservatives and centrists; and a nationalist, anti-immigration far right.

 

Lawmakers are expected to vote on no-confidence motions as early as this week. If they pass, Mr. Lecornu and his cabinet will have to resign and Mr. Macron will come under even more pressure to call snap parliamentary elections or to step down himself. Mr. Lecornu’s last cabinet imploded over partisan turmoil after a record 836 minutes.

 

“Only by returning to the people will it be possible to make the major political decisions needed to overcome these multiple crises,” the National Rally said in a statement. Polls have shown that the National Rally would be the party most likely to benefit if elections were held now.

 

But Mr. Macron, who has ruled out resigning or calling new elections, accused French political parties of squabbling at a critical moment.

 

Even if Mr. Lecornu survives the immediate threat of being ousted, he will be hard-pressed to get a budget passed to reduce France’s rising debt by the end of the year.

 

“Many of those who have fueled division and speculation have not been up to the task of the current situation in France and of the French people’s expectations,” Mr. Macron said, adding that those who had “destabilized” Mr. Lecornu were “solely responsible for this disorder.”

 

“I ensure continuity and stability, and I will continue to do so,” he added.

 

Critics — including in his own party — accuse Mr. Macron of prolonging the crisis. His centrist alliance lost badly in snap elections last year, yet he has appointed a succession of unstable, center-right minority governments instead of an opposition prime minister.

 

“Has Macron realized that he must step back from his own second term, at least regarding domestic policy, to salvage what remains?” the newspaper Le Monde asked in its editorial on Monday.

 

Under France’s Constitution, the president chooses the prime minister and appoints cabinet members on the prime minister’s recommendation. Prime ministers are formally in charge of domestic policy and run the country on a day-to-day basis.

 

The cabinet appointed on Sunday, mixing members of Mr. Macron’s centrist coalition, conservatives and outsiders, did not differ radically from the previous one.

 

Several key ministers stayed on, like Jean-Noël Barrot, a centrist who has been foreign minister for a year, and Roland Lescure, a member of Mr. Macron’s Renaissance party who is economy minister.

 

Bruno Le Maire, a former economy minister whose appointment as defense minister last week was widely criticized, did not return.

 

Six of the cabinet’s 34 ministers came from the Republicans, France’s mainstream conservative party. Bruno Retailleau, the party’s leader and the departing interior minister, said all six would now be excluded from the party, reflecting a growing rift over whether to work with Mr. Macron.

 

Mr. Retailleau was replaced by Laurent Nuñez, the Paris police chief, who has also directed France’s counterterrorism and intelligence services.

 

Jean-Pierre Farandou, the head of France’s national rail company, became labor minister, and Monique Barbut, a former head of the World Wildlife Fund in France, was appointed environment minister.

 

Mr. Lecornu had also insisted on the need for fresh faces who were “disconnected” from ambitions for the 2027 presidential elections.

 

He told his first meeting of cabinet members on Monday that their sole mission was “to overcome this political crisis in which we find ourselves and that has stunned some of our fellow citizens.”

 

First, they will have to survive the week.

 

“A word of advice to newcomers,” Mathilde Panot, a top France Unbowed lawmaker in the lower house, quipped on Sunday. “Don’t unpack your boxes too quickly.”

 

Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting.

 

Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.