PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, October 7, 2025: French PM Sébastien Lecornu's resignation has sent France into political turmoil and features on most French front pages. France's political troubles are also getting a lot of coverage in Europe and around the world. In Israel, papers are commemorating the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks. Further afield, Israel's reputation in view of the war in Gaza sparks debate, as do pro-Palestinian marches in London.
Sébastien Lecornu's resignation is all over the French papers and they are not pulling any punches. Libération has a very evocative headline: "The Incapables". L'Humanité headlines with "Chienlit", a term that was popularised by Charles de Gaulle in 1968 and means chaos. Aujourd'hui en France asks: "Is there anyone there?" Le Figaro reports that Lecornu has been asked to come up with a plan to rescue the stability of the country. He has 48 hours, as Le Telegramme notes. It's an eternal crisis for President Emmanuel Macron, according to La Dépêche du Midi, or more simply put by La Provence, a circus.
The international press is also covering the political crisis. Italian website Panorama says that Italy is now more reliable than France. In Portugal, Publico discusses a regime in crisis and puts it down to a "dysfunctional constitutional system". Le Soir in Belgium talks about "French vaudeville", but warns that this political crisis could open the path to a far- right government. In Russia, the online paper Vzglad says that Lecornu's resignation illustrates "the crisis of the liberal model". In the UK, The Times calls Macron a lame duck running out of options.
Elsewhere, Israel is marking the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks. Commemorations and tributes are all over the Israeli papers, but all with slightly different angles. The Times of Israel goes over the different ways in which the victims of October 7 are being remembered and says that families of hostages cannot believe that some are still being held captive. YNet features an interview with a former hostage whose partner is still being held by Hamas. The Jerusalem Post talks about anti-Semitism since the attacks. Meanwhile, left-wing paper Haaretz describes the trauma of the Hamas massacre but says that "the ensuing Israeli campaign of atrocities in Gaza destroyed the foundations on which the State of Israel was built".
Further afield, the Frankfurter Allgemeine says that Germany is failing to live up to its historical responsibility. El Pais condemns the "nightmare that has become routine" and says that these past two years have been 730 days of death and bombings. The Swiss paper Le Temps talks about the "death of pacifism" in the Israeli kibbutzim. In the UK, most of the coverage is focusing on the pro-Palestinian protests taking place in London this Tuesday. The Guardian talks about the terror laws that might be used to make arrests, while The Times says the marches have been condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as un-British. Finally, Le Figaro focuses on Israel's isolation on the world stage, as more countries now denounce Israel's "excesses of war" than they support PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.
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