France's political upheaval isn't temporary - it's a profound constitutional crisis | Pierre Purseigle

The old prime minister is back with a new team, but it can’t last: a democracy can’t have a president with the powers of a kingThe French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu – who unexpectedly resigned last week before being reappointed four days later – finally cobbled together a new cabinet for Emmanuel Macron to appoint just hours before he left for the Gaza peace summit. Few expect Macron to return from Egypt with a solution to the deepening domestic political crisis he presides over, however. Fewer still have enough trust in a government so subservient to Macron that it can survive the forthcoming deliberations of the National Assembly.Because this is no conventional parliamentary crisis, but a crise de régime. Inspired by Charles de Gaulle’s vision of executive pre-eminence vested in a quasi-monarchic presidential ascendancy, the governing system established by the Fifth Republic in 1958 no longer functions. Challenged by a hung parliament, a severe fiscal crisis and a volatile international environment, the French state is paralysed.Pierre Purseigle is a French historian at the University of Warwick Continue reading...

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