Editorial: An executive at the end of its rope

How much longer can this charade continue?

Five Prime Ministers in three years; a centrist who has nevertheless distinguished himself during his long career by his political acrobatics - a supporter of Balladur but a minister from the first Chirac government, a former UDF member who voted for François Hollande in 2012, a compulsive and "possessed" candidate in the presidential election... - setting out to reform France even though he does not have a majority and has never tried to reach a consensus; Sébastien Lecornu who lectures this same François Bayrou during the transfer of power by promising to be "more serious in the way we work with our opposition"; the appointment of a new Prime Minister, a clone of the President, whose party nevertheless took a slap in the face in the last legislative elections; a head of state who is breaking records for unpopularity, in a country that likes to burn what it has adored, even General de Gaulle had not escaped the wear and tear of power; an ever-increasing gap between the real country, which largely places the National Rally in the lead in the polls, and the inability of successive governments in recent years to take this discontent into account; a country so divided that even the two-round majority vote, a guarantee of stability since 1958, has not prevented a tripartite division after a kamikaze dissolution (which is to say that proportional representation would make it even more ungovernable)...

How much longer can France endure these successive patch-ups? Only the head of state, by resigning, can reset the clock. Our country's governance is at its wit's end. And this isn't just a show.