French government collapses after confidence vote; Macron to appoint new PM

PARIS: France’s government has collapsed after lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister François Bayrou in a confidence vote Monday, forcing President Emmanuel Macron to hunt for yet another replacement as his presidency descends further into paralysis.

Bayrou’s minority government was toppled in a 364–194 vote after he gambled on pushing through unpopular austerity plans to slash France’s soaring debt. Instead, left- and far-right lawmakers united to bring him down, making Bayrou the third prime minister ousted in less than a year.

Macron already weakened by last year’s disastrous decision to dissolve parliament, which left him without a majority — now faces the humiliation of naming a fourth prime minister since September 2024. His presidency, once billed as the centrist safeguard of Europe, is now mired in revolving-door governments, mounting debt, and resurgent far-right challengers.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen immediately pounced, calling for new elections and urging Macron to dissolve parliament once more. Confident in her National Rally’s rising strength, she warned: “A big country like France cannot live with a paper government, especially in a tormented and dangerous world.”

At the heart of Bayrou’s downfall was his insistence that France’s ballooning €3.3 trillion debt — now 114% of GDP — required drastic cuts. He proposed slashing €44 billion in 2026, warning that creditors, not politicians, would soon dictate the country’s future. But his gamble backfired spectacularly, with parliamentarians seizing the chance to cripple Macron’s fragile grip on power.

The collapse marks yet another blow to Macron’s domestic authority, even as he retains sweeping powers over foreign and defense policy. Critics warn that with three prime ministers toppled in under 12 months, Macron risks becoming a lame duck well before his term ends in 2027.

For France, the stakes are high: stalled budgets, record debt, and political paralysis loom at home, while wars in Ukraine and Gaza and Donald Trump’s shifting U.S. foreign policy test its influence abroad.

As Macron prepares to accept Bayrou’s resignation Tuesday and name a new prime minister “in the coming days,” questions mount over how much longer his presidency can withstand the chaos.