France is a Farce under Macron (Debt, Warmonger, and PM Musical Chair)
Noriko Watanabe, Chika Mori, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Under President Emmanuel Macron, France has increasingly become a political theatre of dysfunction and delusion. Prime Ministers come and go like players in a game of musical chairs — not due to healthy democratic change, but because of deep systemic instability at the heart of Macron’s leadership. Meanwhile, France’s national debt has exploded, now soaring above €3.4 trillion and exceeding 115% of GDP, placing the nation among Europe’s most indebted — with little to show for it but stagnation and social fracture.
The BBC reports, “France’s Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has resigned, less than a day after his cabinet was unveiled.”
Lecornu said, “The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry on as prime minister.”
Sébastien Lecornu’s abrupt departure just 26 days after being appointed Prime Minister is not a shock — it’s a symptom. In fact, it perfectly encapsulates the dysfunction of Macron’s France, where the revolving door of prime ministers has become a defining feature of a presidency obsessed with centralised power and personal control.
Lecornu’s appointment followed the collapse of the previous government under François Bayrou, yet instead of offering renewal or reform, Macron doubled down. The new cabinet under Lecornu was virtually identical to Bayrou’s, drawing swift and scathing criticism from across the political spectrum in the National Assembly. Opposition parties warned they would vote the government down, citing the complete lack of political reset — and they weren’t bluffing.
The entire episode underscores the core truth of Macronism: it is not about leadership, consensus, or reform — it’s about preserving Macron’s shrinking sphere of influence. Prime Ministers are increasingly expendable, mere extensions of the Élysée, tossed aside when their usefulness runs out or when the illusion of stability begins to crack. Therefore, in fairness to Lecornu, he soon realized this reality and resisnged.
What we are witnessing is not just political volatility — it is institutional erosion. Macron appears more focused on preserving personal authority than addressing the deep structural and social crises gripping the country.
France doesn’t need another puppet prime minister. It needs leadership — and it’s not coming from the Élysée Palace.
While the streets of Paris and Marseille roar with mass protests — over pension reforms, economic precarity, police violence, and immigration policy — Macron projects himself abroad as a moral authority. He’s poured fuel on geopolitical fires with a hawkish stance against Russia, openly discussing sending troops to Ukraine and pushing NATO further into confrontation. Recently, he’s taken a sharper anti-Israel tone as well, making sweeping declarations that seem more about global posturing than grounded diplomacy.
At home, Macron is losing the room. France is grappling with unchecked immigration, creaking public services, and growing social unrest. Entire suburbs are alienated from the Republic. The middle class is squeezed. Security has deteriorated. And instead of addressing these domestic crises with humility and reform, Macron continues to chase a grandiose international role — as if France were still a 20th-century superpower.
In short, the disconnect is stunning: Macron’s France lectures the world while its own foundations erode. The Republic is struggling not because France lacks potential — but because its leadership refuses to face the realities festering within.
Marine Le Pen of the National Rally says, “The only wise thing to do now is to hold elections.”
Marine Le Pen continued, “The joke’s gone on long enough. French people are fed up. Macron has put the country in an extremely difficult position.”
President Macron’s decision to call a snap parliamentary election in 2024 wasn’t born out of strategy — it was born out of arrogance. Believing he could outmaneuver growing public discontent, he gambled on strengthening his position in the National Assembly. But, as ever, Macron seemed to be speaking only to the elite echo chambers of Paris, not to the people of France. The result? His grip on power weakened even further.
Now, France finds itself with five prime ministers in just two years — a revolving door driven not by public will or policy failure, but by one man’s ego. Macron has treated the office of Prime Minister as a disposable extension of his presidency, undermining stability and accountability in the process. His snap election, meant to consolidate control, has instead exposed just how detached and politically isolated he has become.
This isn’t leadership — it’s hubris. And the cost is being paid by a nation already stretched to its limits.
Across France, the real concerns of the people are being ignored. While President Macron postures on the world stage, the average citizen is worried about soaring living costs, a weakened economy, a ballooning national debt, and an increasingly fragile pension system. Meanwhile, an entire younger generation feels blocked, trapped by economic stagnation, social unrest, and a leadership that seems to serve the few, not the many.
The French Republic is now convulsing under the weight of division — not just between left and right, but between the political class and the people. Macron, with his air of technocratic superiority and foreign policy bravado, has become a symbol of this disconnect. His repeated missteps, from the chaotic snap election to the revolving-door prime ministers, have left the country drifting — leaderless and weary.
What France needs now is not another speech, not another reshuffle, and certainly not another war of words with foreign powers. France needs hope — real, tangible, domestic hope. That starts with political change, not more centralisation of power. The Republic needs a leader grounded in reality, not insulated by ego.
If the future is to belong to France’s youth, workers, and families — then it cannot be shaped by those who have lost sight of their struggles.
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