Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu of France resigned this past week after less than one month on the job. He was France’s fourth prime minister in just over one year. President Emmanuel Macron now has the unenviable task of either appointing a fifth prime minister or calling national elections (after only one year when national elections were last held).
Regarding the political melee in France, the Wall Street Journal referred to the Fifth Republic (established in 1958) as “once a cornerstone of stability in Europe.” But stability has never been a French trait. Look no further than the reluctance of the late Charles de Gaulle, the great French leader of World War II, to be the first president of the Fifth Republic.
President Macron is crippled in terms of politics. The irony is that the Fifth Republic was designed to create a strong presidency, a condition on which de Gaulle insisted. But the only modicum of strength extended to the presidency in France under the Fifth Republic was to establish a term of seven years. And that was changed in 2022 to five years. The reason the presidency was so strong under de Gaulle was his overwhelming charisma and heroics.
Indeed, an examination of the constitution of the Fifth Republic reveals a compromised presidency. The president appoints a prime minister but needs a mandate in the National Assembly. If the lower house of the National Assembly (with 577 members) has a majority opposition party, the president is compelled to appoint a prime minister of another party. And when the president and prime minister are of different parties, the former loses control of government.
That’s the situation of Macron. His centrist party has fewer members in the lower house than either the far right National Rally party or the Socialists. Though Lecornu is of a different party than Macron, both are centrists (neither of whom was or is equipped to deal with either the French right or the French left). The consensus is that Macron will have to call for another round of parliamentary elections.
Not that a round of elections will solve anything. As stated, France is going to have its fifth president in just over one year. It is obvious that another president won’t stabilize the National Assembly. The next presidential election is not until 2027 and France cannot survive two more years of political upheaval.
It may be taboo to suggest a Sixth Republic. France was embarrassed enough to form a Fifth Republic in 1958 (when as a nation it had to come to terms with the end of what was left of its empire). Edoard Phillipe of the centrist Republican Party urges dissolving parliament and calling snap elections. But Phillipe is only trying to set up his run for president in 2027. And the far right Jordan Bardella of the National Rally party, who also urges snap elections, represents a movement against immigrants which would make Donald Trump seem tolerant.
And the phenomenon of the National Rally is the point in which one must take note. Its numbers grow from election to election. Should the National Rally emerge as a majority or a plurality, we will have in Western Europe a regime worthy of Russia or the Middle East.
Politics in Europe does not often make the front page. But a century ago, Hitler was treated by the mainstream media as an obscure politician. France is in crisis. And if you doubt the severity of our first and oldest ally succumbing to fascism, guess again. There is no de Gaulle on the horizon in France and history shows that turmoil in Europe is a dangerous specter.
John O’Neill is an Allen Park free-lance writer and a graduate of Wayne State University.
