The Duran Podcast - French PM Lecornu QUITS. Macron, ALONE & ISOLATED

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

French PM Lecornu QUITS. Macron, ALONE & ISOLATED

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the breaking news, which is that the French prime minister, Mr. Lecarno, has resigned. Not even one month. I believe 27 days is how long he lasted as prime minister of France. And he was just a few hours away from announcing his administration, his cabinet. And my understanding of things is that his cabinet was more of the same. no real change, nothing new. And the other parties were not happy with the choices that Lecarno made. And it looks like he didn't want to fight the opposition.

So he resigned. At least that's how it looks to me. We're still getting information about what's going on in France. But let me just make one more point before you discuss this. Macron, he's been MIA. He hasn't been in France or in Paris much. He's been avoiding having to be in France. He's been traveling around Europe, meeting his globalist buddies, talking about war with Russia.

Meanwhile, his government is a complete mess. Anyway, your thoughts. Well, absolutely. And I think actually the most important point you've just made is the last one. I mean, the president of France is the leader of France. France is a presidential republic. The French president is perhaps the most powerful chief executive in the world. In some respects, his executive powers are greater than those of the president of the United States, at least in real terms they're greater, even if in constitutional and legal terms, they are not.

but the French president, you know, is the leader of France. And France is going through a crisis. It's credit ratings have been downgraded. Well, many people would say that isn't so important. But, you know, if you have enormous debt levels as France does and you're dependent on borrowing, then arguably it is important. You have a political gridlock in France, which Macron himself, has largely created. You have a stagnating economy, falling real wages. You have all of these

problems. And instead of the president of France, the leader of the country, the person who became president saying that he would solve the many complex underlying problems of France, grasping the natal of these problems, meeting the various leaders, discussing ways forward with the various leaders in the French Parliament, trying to come up with some way forward for France. Well, Macron, as you correctly say, is missing in action. He talks about seizing ships, or rather ships that trade with Russia on the high seas.

We had that, I think actually, farcical episode of seizing the tanker, which is Benin registered and had a Chinese. captain, spreading stories the drones were launched from it, a story that originated with Zelensky, by the way. So because Zelensky says it, you follow through, you seize a ship in the high seas. Apparently, they found absolutely nothing there. And the ship then had to be released. And he's ridiculed for doing all of that by none other than Vladimir Putin of Russia. But, you know, those are the kind of absurd schoolboy things that the president of France is now absorbed in. Now, let's just talk about this particular situation. So Macron, in the midst of this gathering economic

crisis called elections, parliamentary elections in France last year, we've discussed these at enormous length. We pointed out in program after program. how he didn't need to call those elections, how he had a stable government loyal to himself, how he didn't consult with his prime minister or with his government when he called those elections, the elections appeared to be part of some kind of device to preempt the rise of Marine Le Pen's national rally. Instead, what happened was that the national rally gave every appearance of gaining support. It looked for a time as if they might even win a majority in the French parliament, or the usual manipulations and tricks were then used to deny them that majority and,

in fact, to force them into third place, even though they won by a significant margin, the biggest share of the vote in the election, a share of the vote almost identical to the one that Kirstama won in the British general election that took place almost at the same time and which delivered his enormous majority in the British Parliament. Anyway, all of these devices, all of these game-playing resulted in a very, very fractured parliament, the left, and I call it the left, because to me it's just the classical French left that I've always known about and can remember going all the way back to the 60s, which is currently led by Jean-Luc Melanchon emerged with the largest number of seats in the French Parliament,

and there is no majority in the French Parliament that supports the political course of Emmanuel Macron. So what does he do? Does he accept this? Does he accept the principle of cohabitation, which we have seen before in French politics, where the French president, when he sees that the parliamentary elections have gone in the opposite direction to the one that he wanted, does he go along with the majority in the French parliament, or at least appoint a prime minister who has a realistic prospect of creating a majority. He was offered the possibility of appointing Lucy Castet's Prime Minister for France. We discussed her extensively last year.

We pointed out that in some respects, she comes from exactly the same part of the French establishment that Macron himself comes from. She is like him, a graduate of the grand eccole. She went like he did to the Accordionale d'Ambinistration. She's worked at Science Paul. She's worked at the World Bank. There is no reason to think that she's any kind of revolutionary figure. She is in fact exactly the normal sort of person you would expect this kind of election to have thrown up as Prime Minister of France.

and she's by no conceivable stretch, somebody who would align with Marine Le Pen or the National Rally. But did he appoint her? No, he didn't because she has links with the left, probably links which wouldn't go very far. And instead, we've had a procession of prime ministers, Michel Barnier, Bayreux, now look or no, none of them have a majority in the French Parliament, all of them remain committed to Macron's political course, which is deeply unpopular with the French people and has no substantial support in the French Parliament. So what Macron is doing, or what he has done, is he has transformed an already severe social and economic crisis in France into a political crisis. He maneuvered to prevent the national rally

from gaining a majority in the French parliament. So the result is a fractured parliament. And he won't form a government that is open to those parties who support he himself inflated, which could perhaps, establish or achieve a stable majority in the French Parliament. Now, he's lost Leconu, perhaps he's most loyal ally of all. It seems to me that even Macron has now run out of road. I cannot see any alternative now to new parliamentary elections. And hopefully this time we will have a decisive outcome. And the only kind of decisive outcome, to be clear, is one which the National Rally wins.

And then finally, perhaps they will be allowed to form a government and appoint a prime minister, though whether they will be able to get on top of France's deep-seated problems, that remains to be seen. But we've had a whole two years now, because this crisis extends beyond, last year, when Macron has systematically destabilized the political situation in France. And you are absolutely right. Having created this chaos, what does he do? He runs away. He meets with his friends. He talks about Europe being at war with Russia. He talks about all, you know, the coalition of the willing. He sees his ships on the high seas. He does everything rather

than wrestle with the real problems of France. Yeah, complete stupidity, isn't it? France is going to go to war with Russia. You can't even form a freaking government, man. Exactly. And you're going to go to war with Russia. Give me a break. The whole thing, just before you reply, Alexander, the whole thing with Macron, which

we've been saying for two years, we've been talking about this for a long time now, that it's going to end up at this place. We actually said it's going to end up right where we are today, everything that Macron is doing, because what's the agenda to all of this? The agenda is for Macron to stay in power, for his globalist government to stay in power, to prevent Le Pen from getting into power, and to keep the money going to project Ukraine. That's it. It's not about France. No. And anybody who has any knowledge of France knows, a deeply patriotic country. Can I just say this? I mean, having lived in France long ago, but having maintained many.

contacts with France, anybody who knows France would know how divisive and unpopular that strategy would be. Now, you know, this is the strange thing. I mean, Macron is always spoken about as this extremely clever, highly intelligent person. I don't see much sign of intelligence here. I mean, it's just, in fact, it's stupidity. It's just childishness. It's puerile. It's puerile. It's extraordinarily complicated, infantile political games, none of which, none of which work to establishing a proper government of France, which is his job. It's his primary job. He can, you know, make great dramatic speeches, you know, being Napoleon and all of that,

or Lou the 14th or whatever he wants to call himself. how Jupiter, you make dramatic speeches in faultless French, telling us about, you know, the great projects that he has for more Europe and European integration and all of this. But unless he actually addresses the problems of France, actually takes an interest in the problems of the French people, this is not clever. It is stupid. And it ultimately, incidentally, undermines this European project that he is so sold on, because you're quite right, you described his agenda exactly. But what he has been doing ultimately is undermining within France that very agenda, because the political forces in France, which have been growing stronger continuously from the moment we're

when he was elected president, first elected president, have been precisely those forces that are most hostile to that very Europeanist, globalist agenda, which he has been following. So, yes, we will no doubt see more maneuvers and more tricks. I can't, as I said, see myself how he can avoid calling elections now, but you know, this is Macron. He might come up with something. I don't know what he's going to do. But, look. he should call elections and if the national rally wins them, please no more of these subterfuges, these plots with the left and with the centre to try to prevent the national rally gaining a majority, given how poisonous the atmosphere, political atmosphere between

the parties in France has now become. I wonder whether that would even work this time. I mean, getting candidates to step aside simply because Macron wants them to, in order to prevent the national rally, gaining a majority, might be much more difficult this time than it was last year. I'm not in France, so I don't know that for certain. But, you know, let us have none of that. Let us have elections which at least provide France with a government.

And yes, it will be a government that might succeed or might fail, and it might pave the way for a victory either for Le Pen herself or for some other candidate of the national rally in the presidential elections in 2007. But for goodness sake, let us give the French people a chance finally. to be properly governed again. Yeah. And we don't even know if Le Pen is going to be this, this, let's say an Orban-like figure, like an anti-EU or anti-globalist figure. We don't know if that's what she's going to be.

She may turn out to be like Maloney. We don't know. But the bottom line is that Macron has run out of road. Yes. It's over for him. Yes. It's over for him. He needs to call the elections.

and he has what, one more year left? Yes. He should just accept his fate as a lame duck president. And honestly, not get involved in any intrigues. He should not deal with Ukraine. He should not deal with anything. He should just sit in the Elise Palace and just wait the year out because the guy is a complete failure.

He is a complete failure from top to bottom. Everything he touches turns to crap. He's incompetent. He doesn't know. he doesn't know how to govern France. That's why he's running around talking about going to war with Russia. Because for him, this is what he knows. This is what he can give speeches about.

As far as administering the country, he's clueless. He's absolutely clueless. So, I mean, he needs to step aside. He needs to step aside or sideline himself and allow the new prime minister to try and put things together, the new government, that that is voted on by the people of France to try and fix this catastrophe that is, that is an unfolding in a country that, a great country. In a great country, I mean, how do you mess it up so bad? Well, I mean, it's astonishing, but you're absolutely, every single point that you have made

is absolutely right. and it is exactly spot on. The thing to understand about Macron is that not only is he unable to govern France, but governing France bores him. He is not only clueless about it. He's not interested in it.

He hates it. This isn't the thing that he wants to do. He doesn't want to go out there into the French regions, into La France-Provenz, really address the problems there. What he wants to do, exactly as you said, he wants to be there with his globalist friends in Brussels or in Copenhagen has happened recently, or in London. He wants to have meetings in the Elysses and meetings in the Lancaster House in London, all these glittering places.

He doesn't want to address the underlying fundamental problems of France. He doesn't really want to concern himself with what goes on in Grenoble, or Marseille or Calais or in any of these places. And you're absolutely right. This is a president who has been basically missing in action from the moment that he was elected. He's never understood or been interested in the underlying problems. He clings to certain very simple cliches.

And cliches, by the way, sometimes have a grain of reality to them. You know, you could argue that France does indeed overspend. In fact, no, you can argue. convincingly, that France overspends on many of the wrong things. But the reality is that Macron has never fixed it. We constantly see debt levels in France rising. We constantly see imbalances in the economy grow. We constantly see a small group of very wealthy people at the top of the

system in France get wealthier still, even as living standards for the rest of the French people stagnate. We have tensions with the migrant community and, you know, the French community. I don't want to go into the details of this. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. And beyond that, beyond that, we have all kinds of other problems in the legal system, the way France is run, the administration of France, the state of the armed forces, all kinds of things. A proper prime minister who addresses these things, given the enormous inherent strengths that France has, it's still a very rich country, by the way, it still has enormous reserves of wealth, it has tremendous engineering competencies, it has tremendous administrative

competencies. A proper, strong government like France has had in the past, like say the government that was created in the late 1940s and which embarked on the Monet plan or the government the de Gaulle formed in the late 50s, early 60s could address these problems. I am confident that it could, but it would mean a break with some of the causes that are dear to Macro. It would mean a break with Project Ukraine. And it would also mean, unquestionably, a demand for a fundamental rethink of the entire European project, which is, of course, exactly what Macron is there to prevent. Yeah, he overspends on Project Ukraine. When you're talking about overspending, yeah, just like all the countries in Europe are overspending on all that nonsense.

And then they're going to their people and they're telling them. telling their own citizens to cut back on pensions and to cut back on health care and education, while at the same time, they are sending tens of billions of euros to Zelensky. Absolutely. That's just the bottom line of it. Yeah. And it's no different in the U.S. either. The entire collective West is undergoing this same issue, where their countries are crumbling,

but they're telling their citizens that we're going to have to cut back on all of these things, of these social services, but at the very same time, they're giving speeches about how they need to give 10 or 20 or 30 billion dollars to project Ukraine in order to prevent Russia from invading from invading France, from taking over powers, which no one freaking believes. No, exactly. But they say this stuff, and I'm not exaggerating either. This is what they say. Yes. And there it is. I mean, and it perhaps worth pointing out that this is the trend across Europe. We've had elections of the Czech Republic, the Czech government that came in a few years ago, which has been absolutely committed to project Ukraine, has collapsed. I mean, it's polling

levels of collapse. We now have Mr. Babish back in power. I have no, by the way, a knowledge of him, deep knowledge of him, and I don't expect very much from him. But the point is, he has been elected, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, because the Czech people want someone again who is going to address the very deep structural and other problems that exist within the Czech Republic and which affect its people. And notice that the thing that Babish is saying is that Ukraine can or join the European Union and he wants to reduce aid to Ukraine. Whether he will or Whether he won't, I don't know. But this is the demand across Europe, and it is especially the demand in France.

It is widely articulated there by a political nation, the French nation, which has always been politically very articulate. both of the two biggest political groups in the French Parliament, the National Rally, and the left, Melanchins left, both want to see an end to French support for Project Ukraine. Whether they really would end it once they, either of them, became a government, is another thing. But this is what strikes accord with the French people. Yeah, because Europe is being destroyed. Yes. For Project Ukraine?

Absolutely. Their investment in Project Ukraine is destroying Europe. Exactly. As predicted, as predicted and everyone is realizing this now. So just a final question. What other options does Macron have outside of elections? Well, you could find another prime minister. Can he go it alone?

Can he go it alone? No, I think he has to have a prime minister. Prime Minister. I mean, I mean, even if he appointed himself prime minister, I don't know whether the President could do that, by the way. Probably not. But I think he's got to find himself another Prime Minister. I mean, the other option, which many people would want, actually, is for Macron himself to step down. He's floated the possibility himself in the past. And he should. I mean, that is the best solution of all. We have simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections, as often happens in France, and then whoever wins those elections.

And I have to say this, given the present trend in France, within France, it's difficult to imagine that the winner in that kind of scenario would come from any other place than the national rally. I mean, they are the people who have been gaining support, both Le Pen and the national rally, Joseph Bardela, who is, you know, Le Penz d'Enfé, if you like, he's a number two. Anyway, the point is that France would then have a government. It might not be a good government. It might not be a government that succeeds, which would deepen the crisis of France. Further, it might want to do all the things that you said.

It might shift towards a Maloney-style approach, which would not, I think, play well in France at all. But it would be a government, and it would be the return of politics, normal politics, to France and to the French nation. And out of that, some positive outcome might come. what we need, what France needs, is to get away from this constant fever swamp of intrigues and conspiracies and manipulations, which we have had associated with Macron from before his election. I mean, he was elected. He became president of France that way, the way he was. packaged to the French people as the revolutionary outsider when he was obviously the establishment man.

We need to get away from that and we need to see in France a return to normal politics again. Yeah. He's a phony. He's a fake and he has an approval rating of 10%. Exactly. I mean, doesn't he realize that he has an approval rating of 10% or 15%? Doesn't he realize that no one wants him? No one wants him there. Well, actually, and there I disagree. Lots of people want him.

They're found in Brussels. And by the way, Berlin and in Davos and a few people in Paris too, you know, very, very wealthy people and very well-connected people. So some people want him. But the mass of the French people don't. And that's what he needs finally to understand. If he has an ounce of an ounce of responsibility, which of course he doesn't, by the way, answering my own question. But if he had an ounce of responsibility, he would step down.

He is the proximate author of this crisis, this current crisis. Of course, he's not the sole author. This crisis has been brewing and developing and increasing and getting worse for decades. But he is the person who has brought the temperature of this crisis to the pitch that it is now. And we cannot break this fever until he goes. All right. We'll end the video there. I was just thinking, if Le Pen turned out to be the real deal, let's say she turns out to be the real deal and she doesn't turn out to be a Maloney.

And you do get elections. you would be looking at Babbage, Orban, Fizzo, and Le Pen. Yeah. If she turns out to be the real deal. Yes, and probably before long, a change in Italy as well, where I understand that Maloney's position is starting to slip. I mean, there's been protests in Italy. They're all connected to the situation in the Middle East, but I suspect that that is also an issue that people around. rallying around and you're getting Salvini in Italy, who's now speaking out increasingly again,

and perhaps is the man who might come. But the point I'm making is that if you're absolutely right, if she were to turn out to be the real deal, France absolutely matters. The European project cannot continue in its current form without France. This is why France there's been all this effort to keep. France in line. It can't continue without France. And France has the chance to change it. If France were to break with it, then I mean, Project Europe would end and we might actually see a recovery and stabilization in Europe. And it would not be the last time, or rather the first time,

that of course France has played that role. But that is a very, very big ask. I'm not holding my breath. I don't know what Le Pen is actually amends to or what she would do. I mean, whether she's cut from the same cloth of Charles de Gaulle might be an over high expectation. We will see. All right. We will end the video there at the durand.locos.com. We are on Rumble and X and telegram and go to Durant shop. Pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video update. There's a link in the description box down below. Take care.