The resignation of Prime Minister Sebastien Le Cornu shows that the latest French government crisis is different from the past because this time, The government’s main allies, not the opposition, played an important role in overthrowing the government.

Since then, a broader trend has emerged of allies turning against French President Emmanuel Macron. That has accelerated this week, with his own former prime ministers coming out to criticize the president’s handling of the political impasse plaguing the National Assembly.

The most high-profile criticism came from Gabriel Attal, a former Macron protégé who was appointed the youngest-ever prime minister in early 2024.

Macron lost his job just months after he decided to make the call Early elections to be held in June 2024It caught even his closest allies off guard, including Atal, who has since drifted away from his mentor.

Attal, who now leads Macron’s centrist group in parliament, said on television late Monday that “like many French people, I no longer understand the president’s decisions,” adding that the president gave “the impression of being ruthless and wanting to maintain control.”

Then on Tuesday morning, Edouard Philippe, Macron’s first prime minister in the three-year term of his first term, shockingly called for early presidential elections, speaking of a “pathetic political game” and “a political crisis that worries and depresses our compatriots.”

He continued, “We will not let what we have experienced in the last six months drag on for another 18 months; that is too long.” In his view, this crisis is “more than a chronicle and a dance of gestures and ambitions, this crisis is a national crisis.”

On Tuesday night, it was Elizabeth Bohn’s turn.

During her tenure as prime minister between May 2022 and January 2024, she proposed ways that might both address the current crisis and undo Macron’s legacy: Suggestions could be suspended infamous pension reform.

Born was in charge of the government during a difficult period of negotiations and protests surrounding the controversial reform to raise the minimum pension age from 62 to 64.

Although the reform was passed several years ago, it remains a lightning rod in French politics, with calls from both the left and the far right to revise it or even repeal it entirely.

Freezing reforms could open up a potential avenue for negotiations with the Socialists to avoid dissolving parliament. But the failure of Macron’s attempted reforms will be highly symbolic.

Perhaps this will be a necessary sacrifice to avoid French politics and institutions falling into a deeper crisis and downward spiral, which is arguably the worst legacy for Macron.