France’s Prime Minister Resigns in Record Time

France’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, announced his new cabinet on Sunday. The next day, he resigned. He lasted just 27 days, making his time in office the shortest in modern French history.

Lecornu is France’s third failed prime minister in a row. France has a right-wing president and a parliament split between the far right, far left and center right. No one has figured out a way to make it work, and in the meantime the nation is sliding toward economic crisis.

President Macron formerly accepted Lecornu’s resignation on Monday but asked him to stay on two more days for a “last ditch” effort to find a solution. If he fails, as seems likely, there’s no easy solution.

• Macron could make a fourth attempt at appointing a new prime minister—but after three failures this appears unlikely to succeed.
• He could call fresh elections, but polls don’t indicate that will solve anything. The far-right National Rally seems likely to do even better this time around. Mainstream parties would be forced to work with a group they consider little better than the Nazis, or the center right would have to compromise with communism to form a government.
• Macron himself could resign. That’s what much of the National Assembly is demanding. But I doubt he would quit power.

The situation is so dire that more extreme options are being discussed:

• France could change its Constitution, forming a Sixth Republic.
• Or Macron could rule as a dictator by invoking emergency powers under Article 16 of the current Constitution.

Europe has experienced these kinds of leadership crises since the 2008 economic crash. With each news cycle, they get worse. Now we’ve reached the point where someone grabbing dictatorial powers is a genuine option.

It may not happen this time around. But no solution is on the horizon—so if not now, it will happen later.

This is exactly what the Trumpet and Plain Truth have forecast for years. Europe will shift from a club of democracies to government by “10 kings”—led by a strong German leader. Watch for Europe’s government crisis to continue until that leader arrives.