Tuesday | 9th September 2025
Paris — French lawmakers voted on Monday to oust Prime Minister François Bayrou, plunging the nation into yet another political crisis and leaving France without a government at a time of mounting economic strain and heightened geopolitical tensions.
The no-confidence motion against Bayrou passed decisively, with 364 members of parliament voting against him and only 194 in his favor. The vote was triggered after Bayrou sought parliamentary backing for his controversial €44 billion ($51 billion) savings plan, a package of austerity measures that included scrapping two long-standing public holidays, freezing government spending, and introducing stricter budgetary controls. The proposal, designed to reassure financial markets and bring France’s ballooning debt under control, was met with fierce resistance across the political spectrum.
The result far surpassed the 280 votes needed to topple the government, forcing Bayrou to resign after only nine months in office. His short-lived tenure follows that of Michel Barnier, who was ousted in December 2024 after failing to command parliamentary support. The back-to-back collapse of two prime ministers in less than a year highlights the growing fragility of France’s political system.
According to the Élysée Palace, President Emmanuel Macron is expected to appoint a new prime minister within days, though the options available to him appear limited. Macron must navigate a fractured parliament where neither his centrist Renaissance alliance nor its traditional allies command a majority, leaving him dependent on fragile coalitions or ad hoc deals with opposition forces.
Meanwhile, the markets have responded nervously. French government bond yields have climbed above those of Spain, Portugal, and even Greece, countries that were once synonymous with the eurozone’s debt crisis. The upward pressure on yields reflects a loss of investor confidence, as questions mount over France’s ability to rein in spending and restore fiscal credibility. Analysts warn that a potential downgrade of France’s sovereign credit rating, expected to be reviewed by agencies this coming Friday, could deepen the country’s financial woes and further erode trust in the government’s stability.
In a defiant speech ahead of the vote, Bayrou warned lawmakers of the gravity of the situation:
“You have the power to bring down the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality. Reality will remain relentless: expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly.”
He went on to lament what he called a “broken social contract with younger generations”, warning that the failure to act decisively on debt and spending would leave future French citizens with an unsustainable burden.
The current instability can be traced back to Macron’s own gamble in calling a snap election in mid-2024, after the far-right National Rally (RN) scored a stunning victory in the European Parliament elections. The move backfired: Macron’s centrist bloc lost ground to both the far right and far left, producing a deeply fragmented National Assembly where no single party has been able to govern effectively.
With Bayrou’s fall, Macron now faces one of the toughest moments of his presidency. He must find a leader capable of uniting a divided legislature, calming jittery markets, and convincing a skeptical public that France has a path forward. Yet with the National Rally emboldened, the left entrenched, and centrist unity fractured, the road ahead looks uncertain—and France’s political crisis shows no sign of abating.
What comes next?
French Prime Minister François Bayrou is expected to submit his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday morning, the Élysée confirmed, a day after lawmakers voted to topple his government. The presidency added that Macron will appoint a new head of government “in the coming days,” though the choice is shaping up to be one of the most difficult of his political career.
Among the frontrunners are Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, both longtime Macron allies. But whoever is chosen will inherit what many in Paris are already calling a poisoned chalice: a paralyzed parliament, hostile opposition forces, and an economy under mounting strain.
Even before the no-confidence vote, Bayrou’s impending downfall had fueled calls for Macron himself to resign. The president has firmly rejected the idea, vowing to serve out his term until 2027. Yet far-right leader Marine Le Pen has seized the moment to demand that he dissolve parliament and call fresh elections — a move Macron has resisted, knowing it would almost certainly strengthen her National Rally (RN) and deepen the fragmentation of the French political system.
The president’s immediate problem is that after three failed centrist prime ministers in under a year — Michel Barnier, Élisabeth Borne’s short-lived successor, and now Bayrou — the opposition has no appetite to grant another centrist premier a chance to govern. Both the far right and far left have made clear they would trigger an immediate no-confidence vote if Macron installs another loyalist.
In theory, Macron could name a prime minister from another political camp. But the arithmetic is unforgiving: appointing someone from the right would provoke instant rejection from the left, while a left-wing pick would be blocked by conservatives and the RN. The result is an almost ungovernable stalemate in the National Assembly.
The battle over the budget underscores just how fraught things will remain for whoever steps into Bayrou’s shoes. The Socialists are demanding higher taxes on the wealthy and a rollback of Macron’s pro-business tax cuts. Meanwhile, Les Républicains (LR), the traditional conservatives who remain pivotal to any governing coalition, have drawn red lines against tax hikes and insist on deeper spending cuts. This tug-of-war suggests that France’s fiscal crisis will not be resolved anytime soon, even as debt levels soar and markets grow restless.
The political deadlock plays directly into the hands of Marine Le Pen. A new Elabe poll indicates that if a snap election were held today, the National Rally would finish first, the left-wing alliance second, and Macron’s centrist bloc a distant third. While the next presidential election is still more than two years away, many in Paris now assume that the far right’s arrival in power is a matter of “when,” not “if.” Yet even its critics admit that a Le Pen victory would do little to solve the country’s deep-rooted problems of debt, inequality, and mistrust.
That mistrust is already boiling over. Public confidence in the political class has collapsed, and protests are brewing. The far left has called for a wave of nationwide demonstrations on Wednesday under the slogan “Bloquons tout” (“Let’s block everything”), while major trade unions have scheduled a separate day of mobilization for September 18. With France’s streets historically serving as a barometer of political legitimacy, the prospect of mass unrest looms large.
All of this comes at the worst possible time geopolitically. With wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, Europe’s internal divisions are once again exposed. The instability in Paris is being watched with satisfaction in Moscow and Washington. Russian President Vladimir Putin sees French paralysis as weakening Europe’s resolve on Ukraine, while U.S. President Donald Trump, who has mocked European leaders in the past, is already portraying the turmoil as proof of Europe’s decline.
For Macron, the challenge is existential: he must somehow steady the economy, calm a restless public, and restore political credibility — all while staring down a parliament determined to block him at every turn. France, a pillar of the European Union, now finds itself trapped in a crisis without a clear exit.