2023–2024 French government crisis

In December 2023, the Borne government faced a governability and credibility crisis. It was caused mainly by the difficult passage of the 2023 immigration and asylum bill, one of Emmanuel Macron's flagship manifesto commitments made during the 2022 presidential election.

The immigration reform bill was a draft legislation introduced in Parliament on 1 February 2023 by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. It was received negatively by opposition parties, in particular by the conservative Republicans (LR) who both hold a majority in the Senate and the balance of power in the National Assembly. The bill, whose legislative process was stalled for many months, was unexpectedly defeated in the National Assembly on 11 December, ultimately leading to Darmanin offering his resignation and Macron sending the bill to a joint parliamentary committee. The conservative-dominated joint committee agreed on a much tougher bill which earned the surprise endorsement of Marine Le Pen, causing confusion and anger inside Macronist ranks.

Several ministers, in a major breach of collective ministerial responsibility, openly threatened to resign if the bill was passed, while scores of MPs from the three Macronist parliamentary groups in the Assembly, including joint committee chair and prominent left-leaning figure inside Macron's camp Sacha Houlié, announced they would vote against the bill.

After the bill was passed on 19 December, Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau immediately resigned to protest against it meanwhile Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau offered her resignation to protest measures affecting foreign students but remained in post after Macron gave her reassurances. Other ministers publicly voiced their opposition to the bill but did not act further on it.

In early January 2024, in spite of earlier public statements in which she expressed her intention to carry on as Prime minister, Borne reluctantly resigned at Macron's request. Borne remained as caretaker PM until Education Minister Gabriel Attal, the most popular figure in the outgoing Borne ministry, was appointed as PM on 9 January. He then formed a minority government from which he and Macron sacked the near-entirety of ministers who had rebelled in late December 2023.