French Prime Minister François Bayrou has failed a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly after just nine months in office, the BBC reports.
Bayrou, 74, was French President Emmanuel Macron’s fourth prime minister in two years. He called for 44 billion euros in budget cuts to deal with France’s growing debt, which may have contributed to his downfall. Reuters reports that 364 MPs voted against Bayrou and his minority government, while 194 voted in favor.
Macron’s second term in office has been dogged by political crises, and he will now be leading his fifth prime minister. Macron already took the risky step of calling snap elections in June 2024. After the president’s party lost the European Parliament elections, he hoped to secure a majority and stability in the country through snap elections, but the result was a controversial and fragile parliamentary composition. This makes it difficult for any prime minister to gain the necessary support for bills, and even more so for the national budget plan.
In September 2024, Macron nominated Michel Barnier as prime minister, but he and his government failed a confidence vote a few months later, in December. Now, the same fate has befallen Bayrou, and he will officially resign on the 9th of September.
Separate parties on opposite sides of the political spectrum continue to demand snap presidential elections.
Meanwhile, Macron has announced that he will not step down before the end of his term, which is in 2027. Now he must choose between nominating a fifth prime minister or calling snap parliamentary elections, which could threaten an even more unstable parliament.
Bayrou’s main stumbling block was the call to cut government spending to prevent the catastrophe that the country’s growing debt will cause for future generations.
The French government has spent more money than it earns for decades, which has led to the need to borrow. At the beginning of 2025, the country’s external debt amounted to 3.345 billion euros, or 114% of GDP. This is the third largest debt in the eurozone, after Italy and Greece, and effectively means that every French citizen owes 50,000 euros. Last year, the budget deficit was 5.8% of GDP, and this year it does not promise to be smaller, so it will have to borrow again.
Like elsewhere in “old Europe,” France is also facing demographic problems and an aging population.
Bayrou is among those French politicians who have wanted to reduce the budget
by cutting the generous social support programs, such as state pensions.
Two years ago, France raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, and Bayrou has said that the idea that people can retire as soon as they turn 60 is no longer valid.
Left-wing politicians have called for tax increases rather than budget cuts.
Now that Bayrou’s government has fallen, France is likely to enter another period of doubt and speculation. Macron may try to name a new prime minister quickly, but experience shows that the process can be quite lengthy. The president needs to find someone who is not opposed by at least some of the opposition parties. The nomination of Barnier and Bayrou took weeks, and there is no reason to think that this time will be any better. In the meantime, Bayrou can be assumed to continue to lead the government.
Macron will certainly feel pressure from the left to nominate a candidate. Previous prime ministers have been from the right and the center; in addition, left-wing parties mathematically won the most support in the 2024 elections.
The French president has several options from different political forces, but the main question is whether any of the politicians who are waiting for the 2027 presidential election and are considering running will want to ruin their political careers by accepting Macron’s offer.
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