French Prime Minister François Bayrou has called a high-stakes confidence vote for 8 September, warning the nation's future is on the line. His €43.8 billion austerity plan includes cutting public holidays, freezing spending, and raising taxes – suggestions which have sparked fierce backlash across the political spectrum.
Analysts expect Bayrou and his government to fall on Monday after just over half a year in office, with both the far right and left-wing parties vowing to vote against his minority administration.
President Emmanuel Macron will then need to decide if he reappoints Bayrou, chooses a new premier who would be the seventh government chief of his presidency, or calls snap legislative elections.
He could also resign, as called for by the hard left (LFI), but he has repeatedly ruled out this course of action.
During a media marathon on Sunday, Bayrou appeared fatalistic: "There are worse things in life than being at the head of a government and that government (...) being overthrown," he told online media Brut.
"It's already been quite a few months" at Matignon, "I have no regrets," he added, noting however one shortcoming: the absence of "a major reform for National Education."
Hammering home his message on the seriousness of the country's debt - which in his eyes justifies a budgetary effort of €44 billion for 2026 - he criticised deputies who "should not be prisoners of the slogans of political parties."
France's debt: how did we get here, and how dangerous is it?
Planning ahead
The president of the right-wing Republicans party (LR), Bruno Retailleau, on Sunday called on fellow members to vote for confidence in the Bayrou government.
He also warned that it was "out of the question" for the right to accept the appointment of a Socialist prime minister, setting out his conditions for LR to remain in government if Bayrou falls on Monday.
Last ditch talks between Bayrou and political allies and opposition figures earlier this week did not achieve any breakthrough.
Three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and her right-hand-man and National Rally (RN) party leader Jordan Bardella reiterated their call to hold swift snap legislative elections after the vote.
Macron gives 'full support' to embattled PM as crisis looms in France
Macron also summoned the chiefs of the minority group of centrist and right-wing parties who back Bayrou and the president for a meeting at the Elysée on Tuesday.
He urged them to work with the Socialist Party (PS), said a participant who asked not to be named, in the head of state's latest bid to woo the PS away from a union with the hard-left and Greens.
PS leader Olivier Faure has insisted a future prime minister must come from the left if the party is to consider cooperating.
All the party leaders present at the meeting, who included Gabriel Attal, the ex-premier who leads Macron's own centrist party, expressed their opposition to calling snap elections should the government fall.
'Political suicide'
But former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is known to retain informal contact with Macron despite a conviction for graft, said there was "no other solution" to France's political crisis other than snap elections.
Speaking to Le Figaro, he described Bayrou's decision to call the confidence vote as "political suicide".
French PM unveils radical plan to tackle ‘deadly danger’ of national debt
France's public debt has steadily risen for decades, fuelled by chronic budget deficits financed through borrowing on bond markets.
The debt grew to €3.3 trillion ($3.9 trillion) in the first three months of this year, or over €48,000 per French national.
The debt amounts to 114 percent of France's annual gross domestic product (GDP, a measure of economic output) – the third highest debt ratio in the eurozone after Greece and Italy.
The debt ratio is almost double the limit of 60 percent allowed by the European Union.
(with AFP)
