{"id":409154,"date":"2025-09-09T01:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T01:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409154\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T01:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T01:03:10","slug":"french-government-falls-as-bayrou-loses-confidence-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409154\/","title":{"rendered":"French government falls as Bayrou loses confidence vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2013 Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou\u2019s government collapsed on Monday night after deputies rejected his confidence motion by 364 votes to 194.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The result prolongs France\u2019s political crisis, making Bayrou the fourth prime minister in just over a year and, like his predecessor Michel Barnier, he was brought down over the budget.<\/p>\n

In a last-ditch appeal before the vote, Bayrou warned that \u201csubmission to debt is like submission by arms,\u201d noting that France\u2019s borrowings had reached \u20ac3.415 trillion.<\/p>\n

\nDefying both the left and the far right, he reminded lawmakers they had the \u201cpower to topple the government\u201d but not the power \u201cto erase reality.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nBut Socialist group chairman Boris Vallaud, in a scathing speech, denounced Bayrou\u2019s \u201cfalse promises and betrayals,” declaring that \u201cit is now for the left to govern.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nFar-right leader Marine Le Pen increased the pressure on Emmanuel Macron, urging him to \u201cstep aside before the people.\u201d Dissolving the Assembly, she insisted, \u201cis not an option but an obligation.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\nAfter calling the vote in August over France\u2019s \u201cdisastrous finances,” the prime minister stepped up<\/a> his media appearances to convince the French of the benefits of his \u20ac44 billion austerity policy.\n<\/p>\n

\nBy Monday, he seemed resigned to leaving office, closing his address with a timid \u201cappeal for compromise.” He is set to hand in his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

Nine months in power<\/p>\n

After the fall<\/a> of Barnier in December 2024, Bayrou told<\/a> Macron that he aspired to \u201cachieve great things” in the 30 months he had until the 2027 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Upon taking office in January, he managed to negotiate a fragile \u201cno-confidence pact\u201d with the Socialist Party (PS).<\/p>\n

Yet he failed to revise the deeply unpopular 2023 pension reform, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, alienating<\/a> even the least combative of his opponents on the left.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The far-right National Rally initially chose to play the responsibility card, ruling out moves to topple the government in the spring.<\/p>\n

But Marine Le Pen\u2019s first-instance\u00a0conviction<\/a> in the European Parliament assistants\u2019 case convinced her it was time to turn the tables and push for power, as her presidential bid hangs by a thread.<\/p>\n

And so Bayrou has lasted only nine months in Matignon, despite his reputation as a skilled negotiator.<\/p>\n

And now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Macron took nearly two months to appoint Barnier after the second round of the snap parliamentary elections in the summer of 2024, and 10 days to designate Bayrou as his replacement.<\/p>\n

This time, the \u00c9lys\u00e9e reacted<\/a> within minutes of the result, saying the president had \u201ctaken note\u201d of Bayrou\u2019s fall and would appoint a successor in the coming days.<\/p>\n

\nWith demonstrations and strikes due to kick off<\/a> on 10 September, Macron is under pressure to move faster. \u201cFarewell parties\u201d to celebrate Bayrou’s downfall are already being organised<\/a> on Monday in front of many town halls across France.\n<\/p>\n

Beyond the 2026 budget, a host of issues remain unresolved, from signing<\/a> the agreement with Mercosur countries to finding<\/a> a compromise on the status of the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.<\/p>\n

At the end of August, the French president had promised that the \u201ceconomic agenda\u201d defined with Chancellor Friedrich Merz would be carried<\/a> through to completion, even if the government were to fall.<\/p>\n

For now, Macron\u2019s priority will be to appoint a new prime minister capable of sparing him from another dissolution.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

UPDATED: The article has been updated to include the \u00c9lys\u00e9e\u2019s reaction.<\/p>\n

(mm)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2013 Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou\u2019s government collapsed on Monday night after deputies rejected his confidence motion by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-409154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115171649429087155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}