“One environmental setback too many. » The Minister of Ecological Transition, Monique Barbut, publicly announced that she would present her resignation this Wednesday, July 22, 2026, after the final adoption by Parliament of the agricultural emergency law. Before turning around just a few hours later, her entourage explaining that she remained in place “faced with the urgency of acting against the consequences of climate change which are hitting our country hard and to respond to environmental health issues”.
If Monique Barbut finally decided to stay, her distancing herself from the government recalls some precedents and the situation of other ministers who one day decided to resign to protest against a policy that they did not, or no longer, want to assume.
2023. Aurélien Rousseau, Minister of Health
Figure of the left wing of the macronie, Aurélien Rousseau is appointed Minister of Health in July 2023 to rebuild the dilapidated link between power and caregivers, but resigns only five months later.
A way for him to protest against the adoption of the immigration law by Parliament. Aurélien Rousseau directly opposed a key measure of this text, the abolition of state medical aid (AME), wanted by the Senate. The AME was ultimately maintained, but on condition of a reform of the system in 2024, which was not enough to convince him to stay in government.
2018. Nicolas Hulot, Minister of Ecological Transition
On August 28, 2018, Nicolas Hulot left the government of Édouard Philippe with a bang. Judging the policy of “small steps” to be insufficient, the Minister for Ecological Transition announced his resignation live on France Inter, without having bothered to warn either the President or the Prime Minister.
“I no longer want to lie to myself, I do not want to give the illusion (…) that we are up to the challenges, I am making the decision to leave the government,” declared the Minister of State, in office for a little over a year.
At the end of 2021, facing accusations of sexual assault and rape, Nicolas Hulot announced that he was leaving public life “permanently”.
2016. Christiane Taubira, Minister of Justice
“I am leaving the government over a major political disagreement. I choose to be faithful to myself, to my commitments, to my struggles, to my relationship with others,” announced Christiane Taubira, then Minister of Justice, on January 27, 2016.
If the right and the extreme right regularly called for his departure, it was ultimately the loss of nationality which got the better of the Minister of Justice.
After four years in justice, Christiane Taubira resigned to protest against this measure that François Hollande proposed to include in the Constitution. “The terrorist danger that threatens us is serious, unpredictable, but we have learned to track it,” she justified at the time. A few months later, the President of the Republic renounced his constitutional reform project.
2014. The triple departure of Arnaud Montebourg, Aurélie Filippetti and Benoît Hamon
On August 24, 2014, the traditional Rose Festival, organized in Frangy-en-Bresse, had unforeseen consequences. Arnaud Montebourg and Benoît Hamon, respectively minister of the economy and minister of education, took advantage of this gathering to call for a “change of economic course. »
This criticism of the budgetary policy led by François Hollande and Manuel Valls pushes the Prime Minister to immediately submit the resignation of his government.
Even if Manuel Valls wishes to keep him in his new team, Benoît Hamon announces his resignation. Arnaud Montebourg does the same. The Minister of Culture, Aurélie Filippetti, also announced her non-candidacy in a letter addressed to the President and the Prime Minister. “The debate that has been opened on economic policy is beneficial and necessary,” she wrote to them.
1983, 1991 and 2000. Jean-Pierre Chevènement, serial resignations
“A minister keeps his mouth shut. If you want to open it, you resign. » Jean-Pierre Chevènement, to whom this formula is attributed, illustrated it perfectly by leaving three governments.
In 1983, then Minister of Research and Industry for two years, he slammed the door for the first time to protest against the shift in austerity. Appointed a few years later as Minister of Defense, Jean-Pierre Chevènement resigned in 1991, refusing French military intervention in Iraq.
These two precedents did not prevent Lionel Jospin from appointing him Minister of the Interior in 1997. A post which he also left in 2000, rejecting the policy pursued by the Prime Minister in Corsica.
