‘I was ready to compromise’: Outgoing French PM Lecornu blasts partisan squabbling for govt’s collapse

In his speech after shock resignation, outgoing French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said that partisan politics did not allow conditions to remain in office.

Lecornu said that he was willing to compromise but every party wanted others to adopt its agenda completely.

Slamming partisanship, Lecornu said that every party behaved as it had an absolute majority even though the implicit understanding had always been to work with the government on a case-by-case basis with compromises.

“I was ready for compromises. But each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire programme. This is sometimes true of the core coalition. It is also true of the opposition. However, as we have said, there is no broad coalition. It was a choice made by the various opposition political groups not to join the core coalition in government, but to allow for debates and then organise compromises, knowing that compromise is not a betrayal of principles. But for that, obviously, one must change their mindset and not want to apply their entire project and programme,” said Lecornu.

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Lecornu said the result was such that he could no longer remain in the office.

Lecornu on Monday resigned just hours after he unveiled his Cabinet. He became the fourth prime minister to lose his job in just over a year.

After Lecornu’s resignation, far-right National Rally (RN) leader Jordan Bardella called on President Emmanuel Macron —who will now have to appoint his fifth prime minister in just over a year— to dissolve the National Assembly to hold elections or resign.

For more than a year, France has been in the grips of a political crisis as prime ministers have run minority governments. As no party or coalition has had a parliamentary majority, government’s had run on case-by-case support from parties across the spectrum — until they stopped supporting and turned on them. Lecornu’s predecessor, Francois Bayrou, and his predecessor Michel Barnier, were both ousted in trust votes after parties refused to support their budget.

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France 24 reported that Lecornu became the shortest-serving prime minister at just 27 days.

Moreover, at 26 days, Lecornu spent the longest time without a functional government. He resigned within 12 hours of naming his Cabinet amid criticism for retaining several ministers from the previous Cabinet.

‘We can’t be in both extremes’

Lecornu said that France could not be caught between two extremes and parties would need to make compromises.

Lecornu said that every party had its red lines but those red lines needed to be accommodated with commonalities.

“Basically, there are a lot of red lines in the mouth of many – at least of some if not of all. There are rarely green lines. However, the very principle of building a compromise between political parties is to be able to combine green lines and take into account a certain number of red lines. But we can’t be in both extremes. Some opposition political parties have understood this and I would like to thank them,” said Lecornu.

Towards the end, Lecornu said that parties must think of French people while taking decisions.