{"id":410901,"date":"2025-09-09T16:42:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410901\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T16:42:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:42:15","slug":"france-braces-for-protests-as-government-crumbles-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410901\/","title":{"rendered":"France braces for protests as government crumbles \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A good long lunch is still sacred in Paris<\/a>. Governments are formed and governments collapse, but it would take a political crisis of possibly apocalyptic proportions to disrupt that midday tradition. <\/p>\n

It has been a sunny start to this week, so the tables out in front of restaurants and cafes are full. <\/p>\n

Others who have queued to grab takeaway salads or sandwiches find spots in nearby parks, or benches, to sit and eat. <\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly I think it\u2019s a shame that politics and the National Assembly can\u2019t figure out together what\u2019s best for the country,\u201d says one local on their lunch break. \u201cI just feel like they\u2019re just thinking for their own best interest,\u201d says the 29-year-old engineer, who doesn\u2019t want to be named.<\/p>\n

French prime minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou\u2019s<\/a> minority government has collapsed after barely nine months in office<\/a>. The 74-year-old centrist premier was brought down after losing a confidence vote he tabled in parliament on Monday evening. <\/p>\n

President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> is now weighing up who to pick as his fifth head of government in two years, a rapid turnover that illustrates the governing crisis at the top of French politics. <\/p>\n

His office, the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace, said Macron will choose a new prime minister in \u201cthe coming days\u201d. Many commentators say the prospects of finding someone who will fare better than recent predecessors is slim. <\/p>\n

Bayrou\u2019s surprise confidence vote was a throw of the dice, aimed at bouncing some of the opposition into supporting a controversial cost-cutting budget. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0A second French government has effectively collapsed. What is going on?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"FrançoisFran\u00e7ois Bayrou pictured prior to a confidence vote on Monday over the government’s austerity budget, at the National Assembly in Paris. Photograph: Magali Cohen\/ Hans Lucas\/ AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The unpopular plan for \u20ac44 billion in cuts and savings was necessary to tame France\u2019s worryingly high budget deficit and growing public debts, Bayrou had said. <\/p>\n

In the end not even all the members of his own government voted with him. He had the support of Macron\u2019s Renaissance party and its other centrist allies, but barely half of the deputies from the smaller centre-right Republicans party voted in favour of his motion. <\/p>\n

Marine Le Pen\u2019s far right National Rally and all the opposition parties of the left voted to topple Bayrou\u2019s administration, meaning France is without a government for the second time in 10 months. <\/p>\n

The problem is Macron \u201cdoesn\u2019t listen to the people\u201d, says Eduardo Paumelle, a 68-year-old Parisian working in the hotel business. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t care about what we think, he just has his own view, he doesn\u2019t care about anything else. And the French people, they want to get rid of him as soon as possible,\u201d Paumelle says. <\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s second term runs until the spring of 2027, at which point fresh presidential elections will be held. Le Pen is hoping that poll will prove to be the breakthrough where the far right march into the highest office in French politics. <\/p>\n

\"EduardoEduardo Paumelle, a 68-year-old Paris resident: ‘I don\u2019t see anybody for the moment who can really take the place in the right direction.’ Photograph: Jack Power <\/p>\n

After serving two consecutive terms Macron cannot put himself forward again. Possible contenders are all jostling for position inside the various political factions, plotting a run in a year and a half\u2019s time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see anybody for the moment who can really take the place in the right direction,\u201d Paumelle says. <\/p>\n

The 68-year-old is sitting on a chair in the Tuileries Garden, near the Louvre, reading L\u2019Assommoir, a classic by the 19th century French novelist \u00c9mile Zola, about working class life in Paris. <\/p>\n

Maybe the solution was not to have any politicians in charge, Paumelle says. \u201cIn Belgium they had no government for one or two years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The immediate concern for Macron will be to pick a new prime minister who can squeeze a budget through the fractious National Assembly this year. <\/p>\n

Snap elections last summer returned a hung parliament, where seats were split between the far right National Rally, Macron\u2019s diminished centrist bloc and several left-wing parties. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever will happen we will have a very complex situation,\u201d says Andre Gattolin, a former senator from Macron\u2019s party.<\/p>\n

\"FrancoisFrancois Bayrou resigned on Tuesday, nine months into the job, after failing to win support for his deficit-cutting plans from a National Assembly fractured into uncompromising factions. Photograph: Nathan Laine\/ Bloomberg <\/p>\n

Olivier Faure, leader of the centre-left Socialists, says the next prime minister should come from their ranks. Such a government would be well short of a parliamentary majority, with the support of the centre parties and the Greens. <\/p>\n

Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, the leader of the radical France Unbowed, the largest party on the left, said they will not support any coalition that includes Macron\u2019s people. <\/p>\n

Other names circulating in the press include politicians from Macron\u2019s own centre coalition, where Bayrou was drawn from.<\/p>\n

S\u00e9bastien Lecornu, minister for the armed forces, has been mentioned as a possible choice for prime minister. Lecornu comes from Macron\u2019s party, but was a former member of the Republicans. Justice minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin is another name out there. <\/p>\n

Industry minister Marc Ferracci, a close ally of Macron, could be an outside bet for the job, one source speculated. <\/p>\n

Gattolin says fresh parliamentary elections will be needed in the near future, even if the result is that Le Pen\u2019s party emerges as the largest force. <\/p>\n

Such a scenario might force the National Rally to govern and take tough decisions, possibly killing their momentum heading into the 2027 presidential election, he says. <\/p>\n

The former senator says first some interim prime minister will have to get a scaled-back budget through parliament. <\/p>\n

Protests planned for Wednesday could further shake public confidence in the system. <\/p>\n

A new \u201cblock everything\u201d movement has threatened a wave of disruption across the country that activists say will bring France to a halt, similar to the yellow vest protests of 2018. <\/p>\n

The protests have been organised online by a leaderless structure, which makes it difficult for authorities to gauge what sort of turnout to expect. <\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople participate in a spontaneous rally following the rejection of the vote of confidence requested by former prime minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayou, in Montreuil, Paris, on Monday. Photograph: EPA <\/p>\n

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said 80,000 police would be deployed across the country, with authorities fearing attempts to block some main roads and train stations. \u201cMany arrests may be made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Macron will certainly be hoping he does not have to add quelling mass unrest to the list of mounting problems France needs to solve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A good long lunch is still sacred in Paris. Governments are formed and governments collapse, but it would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[34,2000,299,36,1411],"class_list":{"0":"post-410901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-emmanuel-macron","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-paris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115175341837149136","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410901","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=410901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}