According to European media reports on October 6th, goodbye Sebastien Lecornu, we know very little about you. On Monday, the French Prime Minister and his government resigned, only 12 hours after the cabinet appointment. He served as prime minister for just 27 days, equivalent to the time it takes for the moon to orbit the earth. If Liz Truss is compared to a lettuce because her 44-day tenure as British prime minister is shorter than the shelf life of a vegetable bought by tabloids, Le Corny is the spinach of politics because he wilts so quickly.

France, of course, is no stranger to short political careers. The shortest previous prime minister of the Fifth Republic was Michel Barnier, who served for 90 days in 2024. However, the record holder for the shortest tenure of a French head of government remains the Duke of Mortemar, who held office for only a few hours before the despotic regime of Charles X was overthrown in the Revolution of 1830. Other brief terms included Alexander Ribeau, who resigned four days before the outbreak of World War I, and Edward Daladier, who ruled for a little more than a week before deadly far-right riots forced him out of office in 1934. In 1948, the government led by Robert Schuman, one of the founders of the European Union, collapsed in just nine days due to post-war political turmoil.

However, the undisputed king of a short political term (we're not talking about real kings and queens, or you'd have to spend a whole week reading) is Pedro Lascurain, who was President of Mexico for less than an hour on February 19, 1913. He was chosen to serve as a bridge between Francisco Madero, who was overthrown in a coup, and Victorino Huerta, who carried out the overthrow. This meant that Lascurein handed over the presidency about 45 minutes after he was president, just enough time to write his full name-Pedro Jose Domingo de la Calzada Manuel Maria Lascurein Paredes-on several official documents.

Latinos are good at this sort of thing-in 2001, Argentina changed five presidents in just 10 days-and so are Australians (Frank Ford was prime minister for eight days in 1945). In the United States, the shortest-serving president was William Henry Harrison, who died exactly a month after his inauguration. Special mention should be made to Anthony Scaramucci, who served as White House communications director for 10 days in Donald Trump's first administration.

In Europe, politicians tend to spend a reasonable amount of time on stage (unless you count Joseph Goebbels, who served as German chancellor for just a day, and Karl Doenitz, who succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of Nazi Germany for 23 days. When we look at World War II, Artur Ses-Inquardt served as Austrian Chancellor for two days). There have been other short political terms in Europe, especially in Italy. For example, in 1954, the government led by Amintorre Van Fanny lasted a total of 12 days. Van Fanny served as prime minister for the sixth and last time in 1987, this time lasting 11 days. In 1972, Giulio Andreotti's first Italian government lasted only nine days.

There was also Magdalena Anderson from Sweden, who was appointed prime minister in 2021, but resigned after just seven hours after failing to get parliamentary support for her budget.