AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
France is in political chaos. At the start of this past week, President Emmanuel Macron's third prime minister in only a year resigned. By the end of the week, Macron had named a new prime minister, the same one who'd thrown in the towel Monday morning. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley takes us through it all.
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UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR: (Speaking French).
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: "Sebastien Lecornu is succeeding Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister," said an incredulous news anchor announcing the latest twist in France's political saga. When he resigned Monday, the former defense minister and Macron loyalist said the current political conditions made it impossible to do his job. Those conditions are a fractured parliament where no party has a majority and the largest voting blocs are on the extremes, massive debt and no agreement on how to reduce it. The far left and far right are calling on Macron to dissolve parliament and hold new elections. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
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MARINE LE PEN: (Through interpreter) This is a deplorable circus. Why is the president trying to avoid an election when we have such blockage? The only solution respectful of democracy is to dissolve the National Assembly and let the French people decide.
BEARDSLEY: Macron's ratings are in the teens. He lost his majority in Parliament a year ago when he dissolved the assembly in a risky move, yet he continues to name premiers from his camp.
STEPHANIE LI: (Speaking French).
UNIDENTIFIED BUTCHER: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Parisian Stephanie Li talks to her butcher as he cuts her a choice piece of beef. She says all the lawmakers are to blame.
LI: It's crazy. And I think that the different party, political party - they don't negotiate enough. They only think of next elections, presidential elections. (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Switching to French, she tells me France is in chaos, and the parties on the fringes are taking advantage of it. But she's also disappointed in Macron for dissolving parliament a year ago when he had a majority.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Others say France's Fifth Republic Constitution is to blame. Established in 1958, under Charles de Gaulle to end the instability of the Fourth Republic, it gives the president and his party outsized power but isn't set up for coalition building. John Goodman is head of Syracuse University's France program. He says this crisis is similar to the epic crisis of 1968.
JOHN GOODMAN: The president is, almost by constitution, removed from the people, focused on international affairs, and there tends to be a neglect of domestic issues. And that's exactly what brought down Charles de Gaulle in 1968, and Macron is now facing a very similar situation. You have a president at the end of his term out of touch with the domestic audience and, you know, where domestic issues have been neglected, and they're boiling and boiling.
BEARDSLEY: Goodman says France is a political tinderbox a year and a half ahead of its next presidential vote. Lecornu spoke Saturday after being rehired.
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SEBASTIEN LECORNU: (Through interpreter) I don't have any agenda but to bring the country out of this painful crisis. Tthe political forces can help me or not, but we cannot be held prisoner to political ambitions.
BEARDSLEY: Some were impressed by his straight talk this second time around, but not tech entrepreneur Theo Canale, who's out on a stroll in Paris.
THEO CANALE: I think it's a joke. I think many French people still can't believe it. And I think Macron is stuck pretty much right now 'cause he hasn't any way out of the current situation. I think most political parties have stopped supporting him, and I don't see how the situation could improve unless there's a fundamental change in the way politics are run in France.
BEARDSLEY: Lecornu says he will name his government Monday, and his cabinet will include no one with presidential ambitions. He says his only objective is to adopt a budget by the end of the year. But the far right and left say they plan to bring this government down, too, until Macron dissolves the National Assembly and holds new elections. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
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