The first remains silent, the second is nowhere to be seen. President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu have carefully maintained their own division of roles since the abrupt fall of Lecornu's predecessor François Bayrou on September 8. Facing a public exhausted by government instability, both chose discretion on the national political stage, where threats of no-confidence votes (directed at the prime minister) and calls for resignation (aimed at the president) are multiplying.

This voluntary retreat left opposition parties and labor unions with free rein to try to create a new balance of power with Lecornu and to influence the agenda of his future government.

One week after the emergence of the social media-driven "Block Everything" protest movement, between 500,000 (according to the Interior Ministry) and 1.1 million (according to the hardline CGT union) protestors responded to the call of the eight main labor unions, based on various estimates. "The ball is in the prime minister's court," said CFDT union head Marylise Léon on RTL radio on Thursday, September 18.

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