Outgoing French Premier Lecornu accuses parties of causing deadlock

Outgoing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu accused parties in France’s divided parliament of causing political deadlock as he unexpectedly resigned on Monday.

“The political parties continue to adopt an attitude as though they had an absolute majority in the National Assembly,” Lecornu said in a statement from his office.

“And I basically found myself in a situation in which I was prepared to compromise, but each party wants the other party to adopt their entire political programme,” Lecornu, who had been in office for less than four weeks, said.

As there was no clear majority in parliament, the opposition parties should take the path of debate and compromise, he said. “For this, you must of course change your attitude and not insist on wanting to implement your entire project and your entire programme,” he said.

Lecornu was also critical of the wrangling over Cabinet positions that was the immediate reason for his resignation. In the National Assembly, neither President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, nor the right and left wing camps hold a majority.

The government is confronted with having to pass an austerity budget in the face of soaring national debt.

Following Lecornu’s resignation, it remains unclear whether fresh elections will be called or whether Macron will seek to appoint a new premier.