Chaos in France as government collapses

Chaos in France as government collapses

#breakingnews #france #macron #government #politics

France will get its fifth PM in three years as the major European nation reels from yet another political crisis with calls for Emmanuel Macron to go.

The government of France has collapsed with Prime Minister Francois Bayrou ousted from office on Monday after just nine months in office.

It leaves President Emmanuel Macron scrambling – yet again – to find a successor and plunging the country into a new political crisis.

The country is trying to reduce its large national debt but opposition parties are in no mood to help the government to do so.

There are calls for Mr Macron to call new parliamentary elections or even resign and hold a presidential election.

But he holds the presidency until 2027 and has shown no sign of giving up the role.

Mr Bayrou had blindsided even his allies by calling a confidence vote to end a lengthy standoff over his austerity budget, which foresees almost 44 billion euros ($78 billion) of cost savings to reduce France’s debt pile.

Mr Bayrou, the first premier in the history of modern France to be ousted in a confidence vote rather than a no-confidence vote, will submit his resignation on Tuesday morning, according to a person close to him who asked not to be named.

In the vote in the National Assembly, 364 deputies voted that they had no confidence in the government while just 194 gave it their confidence.

“In line with article 50 of the constitution, the prime minister must submit the resignation of his government,” said speaker Yael Braun-Pivet.

Mr Bayrou is the sixth prime minister under Mr Macron since his 2017 election but the fifth since 2022. Mr Bayrou’s ousting leaves the French head of state with a new domestic headache at a time when he is leading diplomatic efforts on the Ukraine war.

But defending his decision to call the high-risk confidence vote, Mr Bayrou told the National Assembly: “The biggest risk was not to take one, to let things continue without anything changing … and have business as usual”.

Describing the debt pile as “life-threatening” for France, Mr Bayrou said his government had put forward a plan so that the country could “in a few years’ time escape the inexorable tide of debt that is submerging it”.

“You have the power to overthrow the government” but not “to erase reality”, Mr Bayrou told the MPs in a doomed final bid to save his government before the vote.

Mr Macron now faces one of the most critical decisions of his presidency – appoint a seventh prime minister to try to thrash out a compromise, or call snap elections in a bid to have a more accommodating parliament.

There is no guarantee an election would result in any improvement in the fortunes of Mr Macron’s centre-right bloc in parliament.

And although the Socialist Party (PS) has expressed readiness to lead a new government, it is far from clear whether such an administration could survive.

Heavyweight right-wing cabinet ministers, such as Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, are trusted by Mr Macron but risk being voted out by the left.

According to a poll by Odoxa-Backbone for Le Figaro newspaper, 64 per cent of the French want Mr Macron to resign rather than name a new prime minister, a move he has ruled out.

He is forbidden from standing for a third term in 2027.

Around 77 per cent of people do not approve of his work, Mr Macron’s worst-ever such rating, according to an Ifop poll for the Ouest-France daily.

Alongside political upheaval, France is also facing social tensions. A left-wing collective named “Block Everything” is calling for a day of action on Wednesday, and trade unions have urged workers to strike on September 18.

The 2027 presidential election meanwhile remains wide open, with analysts predicting the French far right will have its best-ever chance of winning.

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