The French Parliament removed Prime Minister François Bayrou from office

The French Parliament dismissed its second government in just nine months this Monday, during a tense debate focused on public debt, marked by calls for new legislative elections and even demands for resignation against President Emmanuel Macron.

After the failed early election in 2024, France is experiencing a period of significant political instability, without clear parliamentary majorities and with a public debt that already reaches 114% of GDP.

With 194 votes in favor and 364 against, the National Assembly rejected the austerity plan proposed by Prime Minister François Bayrou, who announced that he will submit his resignation this Tuesday. This situation puts Emmanuel Macron in the position of urgently forming a new cabinet or calling early legislative elections, just one year after the last elections.

During the debate, Bayrou tried to convince the deputies to approve his budget plan for 2026, which includes cuts of 44,000 million euros (about 51.6 billion dollars), but he failed.

Political instability has become a defining feature of Macron's second term, which began in 2022. Bayrou's government is the fourth to fall during this term and the third in just over a year, reflecting the deep fragmentation of Parliament, where no political force holds a clear majority. This lack of agreements has prevented the approval of the budget, while public debt remains around 114% of GDP and the fiscal deficit is about 6%.

Although he was not required to do so, Bayrou, 74 years old, chose to submit his administration to a vote of confidence, which he ended up losing. A total of 364 legislators voted against him, including the left, the right, and part of his own allies, while only 194 supported him.

Bayrou's speech

Bayrou's assessment was clear: the French welfare system, which covers everything from pensions to education and health, is on the verge of collapse due to excessive spending and the heavy burden of debt.

He also denounced the deterioration of the education system, mentioning a decline in mastery of writing essentials, and highlighted the demographic imbalance resulting from the aging of the French population.

Bayrou also addressed issues of security, justice, and immigration, emphasizing the need to control arrivals and to integrate those already living in the country through employment, language learning, and respect for the essential principles of French society.

"You can bring down the government, but you can't change reality," he warned parliamentarians in vain, alerting them, amid interruptions, to the "vital emergency" facing the European Union's second-largest economy due to its "excessive indebtedness."

In this scenario, pressure on Macron is intensifying, with several possible alternatives, none of them risk-free. Right-wing leader Marine Le Pen argued that Macron has the moral "obligation" to call early legislative elections.

According to polls, these elections would once again leave an Assembly fragmented into three blocs—left, center-right, and right—without clear majorities, although with an increase for Le Pen's party and a decline for the ruling party.