French President Emmanuel Macron urged full support for the US plan to end the Gaza war, calling for a permanent ceasefire, release of all captives, and humanitarian access. Macron, however, blasted expanding West Bank settlements, which he said threaten Palestinian statehood and regional peace.
Published On 9 Oct 20259 Oct 2025
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The announcement came after last-ditch talks by outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu failed to find a solution to crisis.
French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister within the next 48 hours, his office has said, in the latest effort to chart a path out of the worst political crisis of his presidency.
The announcement on Wednesday followed two days of last-ditch talks with party leaders by outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu in a bid to break the country’s political deadlock, after his cabinet lineup, unveiled on Sunday, was rejected by allies and rivals alike.
The Elysee presidential office said in a statement that Lecornu’s discussions with various parties had concluded that a majority of lawmakers were not in favour of parliament being dissolved for early elections, and that there was “a platform for stability” that could make it possible for a budget to be passed by the year’s end.
“On this basis, the President of the Republic will appoint a Prime Minister within the next 48 hours,” said the statement.
Macron thanked Lecornu for his work since Monday to resolve the crisis, the office said.
Ahead of the announcement, it had been unclear whether Macron would opt to reappoint Lecornu or name a replacement, call snap elections or even resign himself.
In September, Macron tasked Lecornu – the fifth prime minister he has installed in less than two years – with forming a government after the divided French parliament toppled his predecessor, Francois Bayrou, over a much-maligned austerity budget intended to tackle a debt crisis.
But despite Lecornu’s promises of a departure from Bayrou’s approach, his cabinet, unveiled on Sunday evening, immediately drew fierce criticism from both the right and left for containing many of the same faces from the previous administration.
Lecornu resigned the following day, making his 14-hour administration the shortest in modern French history, but then added to the confusion when he announced he would hold 48 hours of talks at Macron’s request to try to agree on a new cabinet.
The move prompted renewed criticism of the increasingly isolated Macron, including from former premier Edouard Philippe, once a close ally of the president, who was one of many calling for presidential elections to resolve the crisis.
Speaking to French TV earlier Wednesday, Lecornu said he had told Macron that the prospects of snap elections had diminished as there was a majority in the lower house opposed to the dissolution of parliament.
“I tried everything,” he said of his efforts to find a deal to end the crisis. “This evening, my mission is finished.”
He suggested that a more technocratic and less political administration could follow, saying that any new cabinet appointments should not harbour ambitions to stand in the next presidential elections.
He also pushed back against calls for snap presidential polls ahead of the scheduled 2027 elections, saying it was “not the time to change the president”.
“Let’s not make the French believe that it’s the president who votes the budget,” he said.
The French parliament has been sharply divided since Macron, in response to surging gains by the far right, announced snap elections last year, resulting in a hung parliament.
With no governing majority, the parliament has been unable to approve a crucial budget to tackle France’s growing debt crisis. Meanwhile, proposed spending cuts have prompted nationwide protests, while opposition parties – who are calling for early elections and are pledging to block any new cabinet – have seized momentum.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has plunged France further into a political deadlock after he resigned just hours after forming a cabinet as Paris struggles to plug its mounting debt.
Lecornu – whose tenure, which ended on Monday, was the shortest in modern French history – blamed opposition politicians for refusing to cooperate after a key coalition partner pulled support for his cabinet. He joins a growing list of French prime ministers who since last year have taken the job only to resign a short time later.
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Opposition parties in the divided French Parliament have increased pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to hold snap elections or even to resign – as have politicians and allies in his own camp. Analysts said Macron now appears to be caught on the back foot since Lecornu was widely seen as his “final bullet” to solve the protracted political crisis.
Here’s what to know about Lecornu’s resignation and why French politics are unstable:
Lecornu and his ministers resigned on Monday morning after he had named a new government the previous day.
Lecornu took up his office on September 9 after his predecessor Francois Bayrou stepped down. His tenure lasted 27 days, the shortest since 1958 when France’s Fifth Republic began. He was France’s fifth prime minister since 2022 and its third since Macron called snap elections in June last year. He was formerly the minister of the armed forces from 2022 until last month.
In an emotional television address on Monday morning, Lecornu blamed political leaders from different ideological blocs for refusing to compromise to solve the crisis.
“The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry out my function as prime minister,” the 39-year-old Macron ally said, adding that things could have worked if some had been “selfless”.
“One must always put one’s country before one’s party,” he said.
Macron, in what appeared to be a final attempt at stability, then asked Lecornu on Monday evening to stay on until Wednesday as the head of a caretaker government and to hold “final negotiations” with political parties in the interests of stability. It’s unclear what exactly these talks might entail or whether Lecornu might still emerge as prime minister at the end of them.
In a statement late on Monday on X, Lecornu said he accepted Macron’s proposal “to hold final discussions with the political forces for the stability of the country”. He added that he will report back to Macron by Wednesday evening and the president can then “draw his own conclusions”.
France expert Jacob Ross of the Hamburg-based German Council on Foreign Relations said the caretaker agreement was a “bizarre” one, even if legal, and underscored Macron’s desperation to project some form of control even as his options appear to be running out.
“For me, this really secures the narrative that Lecornu was Macron’s last bullet” to solve the current crisis, Ross said.
France has a deeply divided parliament that makes consensus difficult. Far-right and left-wing parties together hold more than 320 seats in the 577-seat lower house and abhor each other. Macron’s centrist and conservative bloc, which has tried to win conditional support from the left and right to rule, holds 210. No party has an overall majority.
After forming his government on Sunday, Lecornu immediately lost the support of the right-wing Republicans party (LR), which holds 50 seats, because of his choice for defence minister — former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
LR President Bruno Retailleau, who was set to be interior minister in the government, announced on X on Sunday evening that his party was pulling out of the coalition because it did not “reflect the promised break” from pro-Macron ideologies initially assured by Lecornu. He said later on the broadcaster TF1 that Lecornu did not tell him Le Maire would be part of the government.
Le Maire is seen by many critics as representing Macron’s pro-privatisation economic policies and not the radical shifts that Lecornu promised in the three weeks of negotiations before forming a cabinet. Others, meanwhile, hold Le Maire responsible for overseeing the large public deficit during his term as finance minister from 2017 to 2024.
Lecornu’s exit affected the markets with stocks of prominent French companies dropping sharply by about 2 percent on the CAC 40, France’s benchmark stock index, although it has somewhat recovered since then.
Ministers who were supposed to form the government will now remain as caretakers until further notice. “I despair of this circus where everyone plays their role but no one takes responsibility,” Agnes Pannier-Runacher, who was set to be reappointed as ecology minister, said in a post on X.
The issues go back to the snap elections in June 2024, which produced a hung parliament consisting of Macron’s centrist bloc as well as left and far-right blocs. With Macron failing to achieve a majority and with parliament consisting of such an uncomfortable coalition, his government has faced hurdles in passing policies.
Added to the political impasse are Macron’s attempts to push through deeply unpopular austerity measures to close widening deficits that resulted from COVID-19-era spending.
Bayrou, who was prime minister from December to September, proposed budget cuts in July to ease what he called France’s “life-threatening” debt burden and cut public spending by 44 billion euros ($52bn) in 2026. His plans included a freeze on pensions, higher taxes for healthcare and scrapping two holidays to generate economic activity. However, they were met with widespread furore in parliament and on the streets and resulted in waves of protests across France. Parliament eventually rejected Bayrou’s proposals in September, ending his nine-month run.
Lecornu, meanwhile, had abandoned the holiday clause and promised to target lifelong privileges enjoyed by ministers. He had negotiated with each bloc for three weeks, hoping to avoid a vote of no confidence. By Monday, it was clear that his approach had not worked.
Public anger has increasingly also been directed at Macron since he first imposed higher fuel taxes in 2018 – and later scrapped them after large-scale protests. In April 2023, Macron again drew popular anger when he forced through pension reforms that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. That policy was not reversed despite large protests led by trade unions. At present, the French president’s popularity in opinion polls has sunk to record lows.
“There is a numb anger in the voter base, a sense that politicians are playing around, and a huge part of the French electorate is disgusted,” Ross said. “My fear is that it is a potentially promising starting position to call for new elections but also a referendum on topics like migration and even France staying on in the European Union.”
Macron, due to be in office until April 2027, is increasingly under pressure. Opposition groups are capitalising on Lecornu’s resignation, and his own allies are publicly distancing themselves from him in a bid to boost their standing in the next elections, analysts said.
The anti-immigrant and anti-EU National Rally (RN) on Monday urged Macron to hold elections or resign. “This raises a question for the president of the republic: Can he continue to resist the legislature dissolution? We have reached the end of the road,” party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters on Monday. “There is no other solution. The only wise course of action in these circumstances is to return to the polls.” The RN is expected to gain more seats if elections are held.
Similar calls came from the left with members of the far-left France Unbowed party asking for Macron’s exit.
The president, who has not made a public statement but was spotted walking alone along the River Seine on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency, is also isolated within his own camp. Gabriel Attal, prime minister from January to September 2024 and head of Macron’s Renaissance party, said on the TF1 television channel that he no longer understood Macron’s decisions and it was “time to try something else”.
Edouard Phillipe, a key ally of Macron and prime minister from 2017 to 2020, also said Macron should appoint a caretaker prime minister and then call for an early presidential election while speaking on France’s RTL Radio. Phillipe, who is running in the 2027 elections under his centrist Horizons party, slammed what he said is a “distressing political game”.
France needs to “emerge in an orderly and dignified manner from a political crisis that is harming the country”, Philippe said. “Another 18 months of this is far too long.”
“People are seriously speculating that he might step down, and his allies are seeing him as political [dead] weight,” Ross said.
Macron, he added, has three options: elect yet another prime minister who might still struggle to gain parliamentary consensus, resign or more likely call for snap parliamentary elections – which could still fail to produce a majority government. All three options would come with their own challenges for the president, he noted. Macron has repeatedly ruled out stepping down.
The crisis, Ross said, is similarly affecting the president’s political standing on the international front as head of the EU’s second most populous economy.
Sebastien Lecornu to hold two days of talks to try to shore up cross-party support for his collapsed government.
France’s outgoing prime minister has launched a last-gasp bid to secure cross-party support for his government and chart a path out of the country’s deepening political crisis.
The frantic effort, which began on Tuesday, will see Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu seeking two days of talks with parliamentary figures, just a day after he tendered his resignation over the rejection of his proposed cabinet.
That snub, which came from allies and rivals alike, and Lecornu’s announcement that he would quit after just 27 days, have stoked the political crisis bubbling beneath President Emmanuel Macron since the 2024 snap elections.
Now, in a move that has caused confusion among lawmakers and the public, Lecornu has accepted a request from Macron that he hold talks to try to find a way out of the deadlock.
Lecornu, whose 14-hour administration was the shortest in modern French history, was scheduled on Tuesday morning to meet several members of the conservative Republicans and the centre-right Renaissance parties – the so-called “common platform” – to see if they could agree on a new cabinet.
But voices on both sides have reacted with shock, and suggestions that it is now time for Macron himself to make way.
Macron has tasked Lecornu with “conducting final negotiations by Wednesday evening to define a platform of action and stability for the country”, according to the Elysee Palace.
It was not immediately clear what Lecornu’s task would entail. France’s constitution allows Macron to appoint another prime minister, or to reappoint Lecornu – the fifth PM he has installed in less than two years – should he wish.
Politicians of all stripes have expressed surprise over the move. Some said it appeared to be an effort by Macron to buy time.
Others insisted that it means an early presidential election is needed.
Unsurprisingly, Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally, was among them. He said he believed parliament should be dissolved, with parliamentary or early presidential elections to follow.
However, Edouard Philippe, once a close ally of Macron who served as prime minister, also told French media that he was in favour of a presidential vote.
Another former prime minister under Macron, Gabriel Attal, expressed bafflement, saying, “Like many French people, I do not understand the president’s decisions any more.”
Macron tasked Lecornu with forming a government in early September after the fractured French parliament toppled his predecessor, Francois Bayrou, over an austerity budget that prompted nationwide strikes in recent weeks.
Despite Lecornu’s promises to “break” with Bayrou’s strategies, his new cabinet, unveiled on Sunday evening, immediately drew criticism for containing many of the same faces from the previous government, with opponents complaining that it contained too many right-wing representatives or not enough.
The French parliament has been sharply divided since Macron, in response to gains made by the far right, announced snap elections last year, resulting in a hung parliament and now nearly two years of political crisis.
The 47-year-old centrist president has repeatedly said he will see out his second term, which is due to end in 2027.
Published On 9 Sep 20259 Sep 2025
French President Emmanuel Macron has named his defence minister and close ally, Sebastien Lecornu, as the new prime minister after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou resigned after losing a confidence vote.
Lecornu, 39, the fifth prime minister in less than two years, has major challenges ahead, including resolving a deepening political crisis as protests loom in the coming days.
“The President of the Republic has entrusted me with the task of building a government with a clear direction: the defence of our independence and power, the service of the French people, and political and institutional stability for the unity of the country,” the incoming prime minister said.
The French parliament – the National Assembly – on Monday voted to remove Bayrou over his proposed $51bn in budget cuts to address the country’s debt crisis. The formal handover of power between Bayrou and Lecornu is due to take place on Wednesday.
Macron’s decision to choose Lecornu, analysts say, is an indication that he intends to continue on with a minority government that supports his pro-business economic reform agenda. In the 577-member National Assembly, the left bloc, which has opposed Macron’s pro-business policy, has most seats but not enough to form a government.
The appointment of Lecornu, a one-time conservative, risks alienating France’s centre-left Socialist Party, which leaves Macron’s government depending on Marine Le Pen and the far-right National Rally for support in parliament.
“Regardless of Sebastien Lecornu’s personal qualities, his nomination is a slap in the face of parliament,” Philippe Brun, the Socialist lawmaker who has been in charge of budget negotiations, told Reuters.
However, Jordan Bardella, seen as Le Pen’s protege, seemed willing to give Lecornu a chance.
“We will judge, without illusion, the new prime minister on his merits,” he said, adding that the party still kept strict “red lines”.
France, the European Union’s second-biggest economy, seems on the brink of yet another period of instability.
The immediate reason for Bayrou’s fall was his budget proposal for next year. His unpopular 44-billion-euro ($51bn) deficit-reduction plan, including freezing most welfare spending and scrapping two public holidays, has been widely rejected by parliamentarians.
The French budget deficit is now nearly 169 billion euros ($198bn), or 5.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), well above the 3 percent limit set by the European Union for countries using the euro. Investors worry that France’s persistent deficits will cause ever-higher debt ratios and undermine its credit score.
Before Monday’s vote, Bayrou warned lawmakers: “You have the power to bring down the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality. Reality will remain relentless: expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly.”
The prime minister’s proposals came on top of Macron’s unpopular 2023 move to raise France’s retirement age by two years to 64. At the time, the president argued that excessive pension payments were a drag on the country’s finances.
As Macron grapples with the collapse of his fourth government in less than two years, French citizens are planning to take to the streets this week in “Block Everything” protests.
The movement, which lacks centralised leadership and planning, is threatening widespread disruption this week.
“The public authorities and the government have betrayed us so much that I’m not sure they can really meet the expectations of the people,” Louise Nechin, a left-wing activist in Paris, told Reuters.
The protests have drawn comparisons with 2018’s “yellow vest” demonstrations, with protesters at the time setting fire to makeshift barricades and vehicles.
The November 2018 protests, which began over planned hikes in diesel taxes, widened into an uprising against Macron’s policies and became the biggest challenge to his presidency at the time.
With Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase under investigation for baseball betting, fans that bet a combined $315,000 on him could be at risk of losing some or all of that investment.
Clase is the star attraction at Finlete, a San Diego company that offers fans the chance to invest in an athlete in exchange for a share of his future earnings.
The future earnings of Clase, 27, a three-time All-Star, could be influenced by Monday’s announcement that Major League Baseball had placed him on paid leave as part of what the league called a “sports betting investigation.” The sport in question is baseball, according to an official familiar with the probe but unauthorized to discuss it publicly.
In its offering statement, Finlete noted that Clase’s current contract extends through 2026 and guarantees him at least $13.3 million, if the Guardians decline a 2027 buyout. The Guardians hold an option for $10 million in 2027 and another for $10 million in 2028. Clase would be eligible for free agency if the Guardians decline either option, or after the option years have been exercised.
However, if the league determines Clase had bet on any baseball game in which his team participated, he could be declared permanently ineligible. If the league determines he had bet on any other baseball games, he could be banned for one year.
On July 14, Finlete announced on Instagram that it had raised more than $315,000 from “hundreds of investors in Emmanuel Clase’s career.”
In its offering, beyond the boilerplate warning that investors should not invest money they could not afford to lose, Finlete cited injuries, illnesses and work stoppages among risks that could derail payments to investors.
Finlete also warned that players “suspended or banned” from the league “would not receive amounts under their existing player contract and may not be able to secure future playing contracts.”
In his Clase sales pitch, Finlete co-founder Rob Connolly last year told Sportico: “Mariano Rivera was the best ever. And this guy’s in that conversation. So he’s got a full career in front of him. How the hell did we land this deal? It’s incredible.”
Finlete spelled that out in its offering: If you really want to make the big bucks as investors, Clase needs to sign a lucrative extension, or hit free agency and strike gold.
“The profitability of the Clase Agreement is substantially dependent on Mr. Clase entering into additional high-value MLB player contracts,” the offering read.
On its homepage, Finlete highlights seven baseball players with which it has agreements, Clase included. The other six are in the minor leagues.
Connolly did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visit to the United Kingdom has moved from the genteel royal pomp and ceremony to the harder edges of the political realm as his hosts are expected to press for new measures to curb undocumented immigration in crunch talks.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was set to push Macron to do more to stop refugee and migrant crossings across the English Channel as the two leaders met Wednesday at 10 Downing Street.
The number of refugees and migrants arriving on England’s southern coast via small boats from northern France is a major political issue for the Labour government, which has seen the far-right Reform UK party make significant political gains with a hardline anti-immigration platform.
The talks come on Macron’s second day of his visit to the UK, which began with a warm welcome from King Charles III and members of the royal family and a lavish banquet at Windsor Castle.
It’s the first state visit by a French president to the UK since Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 and the first by a European Union head of state since Brexit was made official in 2020. Macron’s trip came at the invitation of King Charles III.
Macron addressed the British parliament on Tuesday, promising to deliver on measures to cut the number of people crossing the English Channel, describing the issue as a “burden” to both countries. He also said that France and the UK had a “shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness”.
Britain hopes to strike a “one in, one out” deal to send small boat refugees and migrants back to the continent, in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in Europe who have a British link, the domestic Press Association news agency reported.
France has previously refused to sign such an agreement, saying the UK should negotiate an arrangement with all European Union countries.
“This deal is far from being finished because there is a lot of opposition from certain European nations, which are usually the port of entry for people seeking to come to Europe, places like Spain, Malta, Italy, Greece and Cyprus,” said Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from London.
“That is because under EU law, in theory, France could just move on the people they receive from Britain and onto those countries, the first port of entry countries, to claim asylum there. So Keir Starmer doesn’t only need to convince President Macron of this deal, but he also has quite significant stumbling blocks when it comes to convincing other European nations.”
In parliament Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, challenged Starmer to “say to the French president we will not accept undocumented males across the English Channel”.
There has been increasing frustration in the UK over funding for France to prevent refugees and migrants setting off and a law that prevents police intercepting boats while in the water close to shore.
“We will only provide funding that delivers for our priorities,” Starmer told parliament, adding that Britain had persuaded the French “to review their laws and tactics on the north coast to take more effective action”.
“I’ll be discussing this at meetings with President Macron,” he added.
After he took power a year ago, Starmer promised to “smash the gangs”, getting thousands of people onto the small boats – only to see numbers rise to record levels.
More than 21,000 people have crossed from northern France to southeast England in basic vessels this year, on a perilous journey.
The Macrons began the second day of their visit by paying their respects at the tomb of the late Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel.
Macron then discussed biodiversity issues with the king during a stroll in the castle grounds before he bade farewell to his host and headed to central London.
At Tuesday evening’s banquet, Charles used a speech to about 160 guests – including royals, Starmer and music icons Elton John and Mick Jagger – to warn that the two nations’ alliance was as crucial as ever amid a “multitude of complex threats”.
Macron had also said in his address to parliament that “Britain and France were too dependent on the US and China, and that they really need to take joint decisions on defence and security even though Britain has left the European Union, as geographically it is part of Europe,” said Veselinovic.
Charles concluded by toasting a new UK-France “entente… no longer just cordiale, but now amicale”, prompting Macron to laud “this entente amicale that unites our two fraternal peoples in an unwavering alliance”.
Macron is due to visit the British Museum to formally announce the loan of the famous Bayeux Tapestry depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England, allowing the 11th-century masterpiece to return for the first time in more than 900 years. London, in exchange, will loan Paris Anglo-Saxon and Viking treasures.