France

Legislators demolished the government of France in a vote of trust on Monday, a new crisis for the second largest economy in Europe that forces President Emmanuel Macron to look for a fourth prime minister in 12 months.

Prime Minister François Bayrou was overwhelmingly expelled in a 364-194 vote against him. Bayrou paid the price, so it seemed to be an amazing political error, the game that legislators would support their opinion that France should reduce public spending to repair their debts. Instead, they seized the vote that Bayrou called to light the 74 -year -old centrist that was named by Macron last December.

The disappearance of the short -term minority government of Bayrou, now constitutionally obliged to present its resignation to Macron after a little less than nine months in office, the heralds renewed the uncertainty and risk of a prolonged legislative dead point for France while fighting with pressing challenges, including budgetary and internationally and international difficulties, wars in wars in wars in wars in wars in wars Ukraine and Loop and the changing priorities of President Trump.

Find a replacement

Although Macron had two weeks to prepare for the government’s collapse after Bayrou announced in August that he would seek a vote of confidence about his impopular budget plans, he has not become a first successful probable successor.

After Gabriel AttalThe game as Prime Minister in September 2024, followed by the former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier’s expulsion For Parliament in December, and Bayrou now also overthrew, Macron again faces an arduous search for a replacement to build a consensus in the lower house of the Parliament that is stacked with opponents of the French leader.

Macron’s office said he would accept the resignation of the Bayrou Government on Tuesday and appoint a new prime minister “in the next few days.”

As president, Macron will continue to have substantial powers on foreign policy and European affairs and will continue to be the leader of the army with nuclear weapons. But at the national level, the ambitions of 47 -year -old president are increasingly facing ruin.

The root of the last collapse of the government was Macron’s surprising decision to dissolve the National Assembly in June 2024, which caused a legislative election that the French leader expected to strengthen the hand of his centrist Proeuropea. But the bet counterproductiveproducing a shipyard legislature without a dominant political bloc in power for the first time in the modern Republic of France.

Since the dispatch of a viable majority, their minority governments have staggered a crisis to the crisis, surviving the opposite of political blockages to the left and the extreme right that do not have enough seats to govern themselves, but they can, when they join, knock down the macron elections.

Bayrou’s Gamble

Bayrou also launched the dice by calling the vote of trust, a decision that quickly failed in the veteran politician as the legislators of the left and extreme right took the opportunity to expel their government, seeking to increase the pressure on Macron.

“This moment marks the end of the agony of a ghost government”, leader of the extreme right Marine Le Pen He said, according to the Reuters news service.

“Today is a day of relief for millions of French, relief about his departure,” said Mathilde Panot of Hard France against Bayrou in comments before the vote, according to Reuters.

Bayrou admitted in his last speech as prime minister of the National Assembly to put his destination on the line was risky. But he said that France’s debt crisis forced him to seek legislative support for remedies, compared to what he called “a silent, underground, invisible and unbearable hemorrhage of excessive public loans.

“The greatest risk was not to take one, let things continue without changing anything, continue doing politics as usual,” he said. “Submission to debt is like submission through military force. Dominated by weapons, or dominated by our creditors, due to a debt that is immersing us, in both cases, we lose our freedom.”

At the end of the first quarter of 2025, France’s public debt stood at 3,346 billion euros, or 114% of the gross domestic product. The debt service remains an important budget article, which represents about 7% of state spending.

Le Pen wants new choice

The National Assembly of 577 seats interrupted its summer break to convene for the extraordinary session of high political drama. Macron’s opponents worked to take advantage of the crisis to promote a new legislative choice, apply pressure for Macron or Jostle’s departure for positions in the next government.

Le Pen asked Macron to dissolve the National Assembly again, apparently sure that his National Rally Party and his allies would win a majority in another instant legislative election, positioning it to form a new government.

“A great country like France cannot live with a paper government, especially in a tormented and dangerous world,” he said in the National Assembly.

Pressing problems

In a last effort to save his work before the vote, Bayrou warned that France is risking its future and its influence accumulating billion in the state debts that we “immerse”, pleading for the belt adjustment.

The chosen successor of Macron will operate in the same precarious environment and will face the same budgetary problems that persecuted Bayrou and its predecessors. Macron himself has promised to remain in office until the end of his mandate, but runs the risk of becoming a lame duck at the national level if political paralysis continues.

According to the French political system, the prime minister is appointed by the President, responsible before Parliament, and is in charge of the implementation of internal policy, especially economic measures.

Arguing that strong cuts are needed to repair public finances, Bayrou had proposed to reduce 44 billion euros ($ 51 billion) in expenses in 2026, after the deficit of France reached 5.8% of GDP last year, well above the official EU target of 3%.

He painted a dramatic image of economy number 2 of the European Union that was taken into account the foreign creditors and addicted to living beyond their means. He punished the opponents in the National Assembly who joined their minority government despite their own political differences.

“You have the power to overthrow the government, but you don’t have the power to erase reality,” Bayrou said. “The reality will continue to be inexorable. The expense will continue to increase and the load of the debt, already unbearable, will become heavier and more expensive.”

• Emmanuel Macron
• France