PARIS — PARIS (AP) — France’s latest political crisis eased — for now — when Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu survived two consecutive no-confidence votes on Thursday, averting another government collapse and giving President Emmanuel Macron a respite before an even tougher fight over the national budget.
The immediate danger may have receded but the core problem is still very much center stage. The eurozone’s second-largest economy is still run by a minority government in a splintered parliament where no single bloc or party has a majority.
Every major law now turns on last-minute deals, and the next test is a spending plan that must pass before the end of the year.
On Thursday, lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly rejected a no-confidence motion filed by the hard-left France Unbowed party. The 271 votes were 18 short of the 289 needed to bring down the government.
A second motion from the far-right National Rally also failed.
Had Lecornu lost, Macron would have faced only unpalatable options: call new legislative elections, try to find yet another prime minister — France’s fifth in barely a year — or perhaps even resign himself, which he has ruled out.
Macron’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly in June 2024 backfired on him, triggering legislative elections that stacked the powerful lower house with opponents of the French leader but producing no outright winner.
Since then, Macron’s minority governments have sought to barter support bill by bill and have fallen in quick succession.
That collides with the architecture of the Fifth Republic, founded in 1958 under Charles de Gaulle.
The system was built for a strong presidency and stable parliamentary majorities, not for coalition horse-trading or a splintered house.
With no single bloc near an absolute majority of 289 seats, the machinery is grinding against its design, turning big votes into cliffhangers and raising existential questions about the governance of France.
For French voters and observers, it’s jarring. France, once a model of eurozone stability, is now stumbling from crisis to crisis, testing the patience of markets a