# The French government fell today (12/4/24). Does anyone care?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 5, 2024, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176 "2024-12-05T02:25:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2025, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/81 "2025-09-21T17:24:50Z")
But maybe a little bit less miserable this time?
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2025, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/82 "2025-09-21T17:37:19Z")
> [@OldOlds](#):
>
> less miserable
Dammit!, I spent 15 minutes trying to come up with something like that on Friday.
_stares angrily at **OldOlds** _
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2025, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/83 "2025-09-21T23:08:02Z")
> [@Frodo](#):
>
> I spent 15 minutes trying to come up with something like that on Friday.
I guess you needed one day more.
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### Author:  [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2025, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/84 "2025-09-22T23:35:03Z")
My friend, sometimes you’re the pigeon, and sometimes you’re the statue.
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/85 "2025-09-23T00:10:07Z")
_stares even more angrily… then starts to laugh_
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2025, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/86 "2025-09-23T08:47:16Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> I’ve never been fond of referring to a PM and their Cabinet as “the government”.
It may be initially confusing to us Americans, but it is standard usage in most parliamentary systems that I’m aware of. When they say “goverment” I think “administration”.
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/87 "2025-09-27T10:17:13Z")
Yes. I think for what you understand by “the government”, we’d say “the state", or depending on context “the Crown”.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/88 "2025-10-06T16:20:08Z")
> **[Latest French government's collapse within 14 hours deepens Macron's...](https://apnews.com/article/france-macron-lecornu-government-politics-ca3482440dc47cd04960b3f171b7ad22)**
>
> French President Emmanuel Macron faces a political crisis after his prime minister resigned on Monday. This marks Macron's fourth prime minister in just over a year.
So will there be immediate elections?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/89 "2025-10-06T16:23:36Z")
You know, when I started this thread 10 months ago I had no idea it would still be an active topic.
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/90 "2025-10-06T17:30:02Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> So will there be immediate elections?
Looks like the only option, but Macron is stubborn as well as arrogant; and a parliamentary election might well be as inconclusive as the last time. On the other hand, there might be something to be said for allowing Bardella his chance to muck things up, and see if he falls out with Mme Le Pen.
I’d be surprised if Macron chooses to forgo his last couple of years in the Elysée, but who knows?
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/91 "2025-10-06T17:42:49Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> So will there be immediate elections?
Parliamentary elections? I am not familiar with the procedure (how do you dissolve parliament? How long does it take? What is the minimum duration of the electoral campaign?) but it would not surprise me.
Presidential elections? I doubt it. Has a French president ever stepped down before the end of his term? Not in the [Fifth Republic,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Fifth_Republic) as far as I am aware.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/92 "2025-10-06T18:54:37Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#):
>
> You know, when I started this thread 10 months ago I had no idea it would still be an active topic.
The French public is in a sorta analagous state to the US’s. Several incompatible factions of broadly similar size that _really_ don’t like each other.
Under the US system, the factions are forced to hold their noses and join one of two parties. And the election cycle is fixed, so governments can’t fall in the parliamentary sense, but we can sure have the permanent campaign by both sides.
In the French system that same rigidly fractured multi-polar populace results in a succession of weak governments, no one of which can get shit done with 3 or 4 big detractors and 1 or 2 kinda-allies-but-not-really. So the lifespan of any given government is just until enough of the other factions fancy their chances to improve their situation in a fresh round of internal politicking and elections.
My bottom line point being that IMO this thread will remain intermittently topical for the next decade or more.
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### Author:  [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/93 "2025-10-07T08:51:52Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#):
>
> Has a French president ever stepped down before the end of his term? Not in the [Fifth Republic,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Fifth_Republic) as far as I am aware.
Ahem… its very founder [went off in a huff](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_French_constitutional_referendum)
It’s just been drawn to my attention that Marine Le Pen is currently ineligible to stand for office (as a result of her little expenses problem), although she has an [appeal due to be heard in January](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250908-french-far-right-leader-marine-le-pen-s-graft-conviction-appeal-trial-will-start-january-13-2026)
So it occurs to me that if Macron wants to set a cat among her party’s pigeons, he might stand down now and hope they tear each other apart while the election gets done and dusted before then. But maybe his own party would be as open to fracture too.
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/94 "2025-10-07T10:50:43Z")
Yes, should have remembered the General. OK, let’s see what happens next. Will Macron resign or not?
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/95 "2025-10-07T19:29:29Z")
He could try invoking Article 16 of the constitution, but that hasn’t been done since a failed coup attempt during the Algerian War. Is Macron really that desperate and arrogant?
> **[States of emergency in France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_emergency_in_France?wprov=sfla1)**
>
> States of emergency in France (French: état d'urgence) are dispositions to grant special powers to the executive branch in case of exceptional circumstances.
> Four main provisions concern various kinds of "states of emergency" in France: two of those stem from the Constitution of France, and the other two from a statute:
> There are distinctions between article 16, article 36, and the 1955 Act, which concern mainly the distribution of powers. These dispositions have been used at various times, ...
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-french-government-fell-today-12-4-24-does-anyone-care/1011176/96 "2025-10-11T01:47:36Z")
Well the fifth prime minister is the same guy as the fourth prime minister:
> **[Macron reappoints Sébastien Lecornu as French prime minister](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/10/macron-reappoints-sebastien-lecornu-as-french-prime-minister)**
>
> Lecornu, who resigned as PM on Monday, is tasked with urgently delivering a budget to parliament
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