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Good news for Michel Barnier and Liz Truss, Sébastien Lecornu only lasted 27 days in office…
He only stayed on duty for 12 hours.
Farewell Sébastien Lecornu, we barely knew you.
On Monday, the French prime minister and his government resigned, just 12 hours after the cabinet was named. He had been prime minister for 27 days, the same time it takes the moon to orbit the Earth.
If Liz Truss was compared by a tabloid newspaper to a green salad because her 44-day tenure as British prime minister lasted longer than a store-bought vegetable, that should make Lecornu likened to spinach, because it wilted so quickly.
Of course, France is no stranger to short political careers. The shortest-lived previous prime minister of the Fifth Republic was Michel Barnier, who lasted a full 90 days in 2024.
However, the all-time record holder for the shortest tenure at the head of France's government remains the Duc de Mortemart, who served for a few hours before the absolutist regime of Charles X was overthrown in the Revolution of 1830.
Other short terms include Alexandre Ribot, who remained in office for four days before resigning just before the outbreak of World War I, and Édouard Daladier, who governed for little more than a week before the deadly far-right riots of 1934 forced him out.
In 1948, the founder of the EU, Robert Schuman, led a government that fell in just nine days as a result of post-war political turmoil.
However, the undisputed king (we're not dealing with real kings and queens, otherwise you'd be reading this all week) of the short political reign was Pedro Lascuráin, who was president of Mexico for less than an hour on February 19, 1913. He was chosen to act as a bridge between Francisco Madero, who was overthrown in a coup, and Victoriano Huerta, who carried out the overthrow.
This meant that Lascuráin was president for about 45 minutes before handing over the presidency, enough time to write his full name — Pedro José Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascuráin Paredes — on some official documents.
Latin Americans are good at this sort of thing — in 2001, Argentina had five presidents in just 10 days — and so are Australians (Frank Forde was prime minister for a full eight days in 1945).
In the US, the title of shortest-serving president goes to William Henry Harrison, who died exactly one month after taking office. A special salute goes to Anthony Scaramucci, who spent 10 days as White House communications director in Donald Trump's first administration.
In Europe, politicians tend to spend a reasonable amount of time in power (unless we count Joseph Goebbels, who was Chancellor of Germany for only one day, and Karl Dönitz, who replaced Adolf Hitler as leader of Nazi Germany and lasted 23 days. While we're considering World War II, Arthur Seyss-Inquart was Chancellor of Austria for two days).
There are other short political terms in Europe, especially in Italy. In 1954, for example, the government led by Amintore Fanfani lasted a total of 12 days. Fanfani returned for his sixth and final term as prime minister in 1987, this time lasting 11 days. In 1972, the first Italian government of Giulio Andreotti lasted only nine days.
Then there’s Sweden’s Magdalena Andersson, who was appointed prime minister in 2021 and resigned just seven hours later after failing to get parliamentary support for her budget. Andersson got a second chance a few days later and managed to stay on for almost a year. /Adapted from Politico/
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