France's new government has collapsed in record time--just 27 days into the new prime minister's tenure and 14 hours after he named his cabinet.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who was appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron just 27 days earlier, resigned on Monday under pressure from conservatives, according to Politico.

Lecornu is a member of Macron's centrist Renaissance Party, where he previously served as Macron's minister of the Armed Forces, and is the fifth appointee to the position by Macron since 2022.

The embattled prime minister explained his resignation as a response to large numbers of far-right and far-left members in Parliament, all of whom are fighting for their legislative priorities with no willingness to compromise.

Extreme views

“The political parties continue to adopt a posture as if they all had an absolute majority in the National Assembly,” Lecornu said in his resignation speech on Monday. “And basically, I found myself in a situation where I was ready to compromise, but each political party wants the other political party to adopt its entire program.”

The breaking point came when a bloc of 50 conservatives objected to Lecornu's choice for defense minister, Bruno Le Mair, who served previously from 2017 to 2024 and is blamed by them for a surging deficit.

Members on both sides complained that Lecornu was filling the cabinet with too many of the same people who served under the previous prime minister, and who had been given a vote of no confidence then.

“The composition of the Government does not reflect the promised break,” Bruno Retailleau, minister of the interior and leader of the center-right Les Républicains, said on X after the cabinet announcements. “Faced with the political situation created by this announcement, I am convening the strategic committee of the Republicans tomorrow morning.”

48 hour deadline

Macron has given Lecornu 48 hours to negotiate with his opponents and try to reach an agreement over a new government.

If that doesn't happen, Macron can appoint another prime minister, or he can dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call for new elections.

The leader of France’s far-right movement, Marine Le Pen, is already calling for new elections.

“There is no solution, there won’t be one tomorrow: I call on the President of the Republic to dissolve the National Assembly,” Le Pen said on X Monday.

Macron wants to avoid this eventuality because he could find himself appointing a new prime minister from an opposing party rather than from his own.

Nevertheless, it looks like an increasing possibility that he will have to do just that.