Bayrou called the vote in a bid to push through an unpopular 44 billion euros savings plan that includes scrapping two public holidays and freezing spending. He says it\u2019s a matter of \u201cnational survival,\u201d warning that France must get a grip on its spiraling debt, since \u201cfor 20 years, each hour of each day and each night has seen the debt grow by 12 million euros extra.\u201d<\/p>\n
These may be alarmist words designed to spur the country\u2019s fractious political classes into urgent action, even though budget reform was precisely what claimed the scalp of his predecessor, Michel Barnier. The European Union\u2019s<\/a> chief negotiator who kept the bloc united in the wake of Britain\u2019s tortured vote to leave the European Union in 2016, lasted only three months as PM, failing to climb that much steeper mountain of getting the French to accept sweeping spending cuts.<\/p>\n With France sliding deeper into political instability, its borrowing costs are climbing. Ten-year bond yields have risen above those of Spain, Portugal and Greece \u2013 countries that were once at the heart of the Eurozone debt crisis<\/a> \u2013 and are now edging close to those of Italy. An economy under mounting strain and at odds with the European strongman image that Macron has sought to project.<\/p>\n France’s Prime Minister Francois Bayrou speaks during a press conference in Paris, on August 25. – Dimitar Dilkoff\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n And yet the current instability can be traced back to Macron\u2019s dramatic decision to call a snap election last year. Piqued by the remarkable results of the far-right National Rally in the European elections of May 2024, the French president forced a parliamentary vote in which his own party lost seats to the far right and far left, leaving France with a divided Assembly.<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t have to be this way. The Fifth Republic, founded by President de Gaulle in 1958, was designed to end the chronic instability that had plagued France\u2019s Third and Fourth republics earlier in the 20th century. The new constitution gave broad powers to the executive and set up a majority system to avoid short-lived governments. As a result, for decades, two mainstream parties on the left and right alternated in power.<\/p>\n Macron<\/a> blew up that order in 2017, by becoming the first president elected without the backing of either of the main established political parties. Re-elected in 2022, he soon lost his parliamentary majority as voters flocked to the extremes. Two years of fragile rule followed, with Macron repeatedly forced to invoke Article 49.3 of the constitution \u2013 pushing legislation through without a vote, to the increasing displeasure of opposition lawmakers and much of the French public.<\/p>\n In the 2024 snap election, the left won most seats in the second round but still fell short of a majority after the far right dominated the first. But their hopes of forming a minority government collapsed when Macron refused to accept their choice of prime minister. Unlike Germany<\/a> or Italy, France has no tradition of coalition-building, its politics shaped for more than 60 years by a presidency-dominated system.<\/p>\n What comes next?<\/p>\n If Bayrou falls, pressure on Macron to resign will intensify though he has vowed to serve out his term. Far-right doyenne Marine Le Pen is demanding he dissolve parliament, but fresh elections would almost certainly strengthen her party and fracture parliament further. Another path would be for Macron to appoint a caretaker government while weighing a successor with Armed Forces Minister S\u00e9bastien Lecornu and Justice Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin among the frontrunners for what is likely to be a poisoned chalice.<\/p>\n The trouble is that after three failed centrist prime ministers, the opposition parties are in no mood to give another one a chance. Both the far right and far left have signaled they would immediately call for a vote of no confidence. Another option would be to name a prime minister from another political family, but a choice on the right would be blocked by the left, and vice versa.<\/p>\n The political climate is bleak. In the event of another snap parliamentary election, a recent Elabe poll suggests the National Rally would emerge on top, with the left coming in second and the center a distant third.<\/p>\n French President Charles de Gaulle visits Brittany in 1969. – James Andanson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Many now assume the far right will eventually take power \u2013 if not now, then in the next presidential poll in 2027, but with little expectation it would solve the malaise. Public trust in the political class has collapsed and anger is set to spill onto the streets on September 10 with nationwide protests under the banner Bloquons tout (\u201cblock everything\u201d).<\/p>\n![\"France's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/eab9d8dcbb63810d485a7cd2812e167e.jpeg\"\/)
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