France’s government collapsed Monday after the National Assembly voted no confidence in Prime Minister François Bayrou, forcing his resignation after nine months in office and prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say he will appoint a new premier “in the next few days.” Bayrou had invoked article 49 of the constitution to put his budget plan to a confidence vote; lawmakers rejected it 364 to 194.
Bayrou had proposed cutting €44 billion ($52 billion) from the 2026 budget to curb public borrowing and reduce a ballooning fiscal deficit. France’s national debt stood at more than €3 trillion—about 114% of gross domestic product—at the end of the first quarter of 2025, with annual debt-service costs forecast to exceed €100 billion by 2029, up from €59 billion in 2024. The country’s budget shortfall is roughly €169 billion, or about 5.8% of GDP, well above the European Union’s 3% limit for eurozone members.
The proposal included measures such as freezing sizable welfare spending and abolishing two public holidays. Bayrou told the assembly that not taking tough choices would leave France’s spending and debt trajectory unchanged: “You have the power to overthrow the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality,” he said. Opponents said the cuts would disproportionately burden ordinary households and were politically untenable in a country with a strong social safety net.
The collapse deepens a prolonged period of instability in Paris. Macron called snap parliamentary elections in June last year to blunt the momentum of extremes, but the vote instead produced a hung parliament split among the far-right National Rally, the left-wing New Popular Front and Macron’s own Renaissance bloc. The result has made forming a durable majority difficult: opposition parties on the far left and far right together hold 330 of the assembly’s 577 seats.
Bayrou’s ouster follows a string of short-lived governments. Michel Barnier served as prime minister briefly after being appointed last year but was removed by a no-confidence vote in December — the first such ouster since 1962 — and an emergency law was enacted to extend the previous year’s budget and avoid a shutdown. Macron then tapped Bayrou, a centrist, who lasted just nine months before suffering the same fate.
Macron’s office said he would name a successor within days and ruled out holding new parliamentary elections. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen urged the president to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections, saying France “cannot live with a paper government.” Polls show a majority of French citizens favor snap elections, but Macron has repeatedly said he will not resign before his term ends in 2027.
Political analysts say appointing a new prime minister will not by itself resolve France’s instability. The next leader will face an immediate imperative to present and secure passage of a 2026 budget amid rising borrowing costs and market concerns. Macron has reportedly discussed forming a coalition with the Socialist Party; Socialist leader Boris Vallaud said he would be prepared to govern, but any arrangement would need buy-in from Les Républicains and other centrist allies.
French intelligence services have warned of planned street disruptions, including a “Block Everything” campaign expected this week and union-led hospital and rail strikes later in the month. Markets and international partners are watching closely: “He needs to act quickly to appoint a new PM before unrest in parliament and on the street … becomes a revolt against him,” Mujtaba Rahman, managing director at Eurasia Group, told the Financial Times, adding that reassurances will be needed to show France can still pass a deficit-cutting budget.
Observers also warn of wider implications for the European Union. An unstable France could hamper EU decision-making on economic and defense policy at a time of growing geopolitical tensions, analysts said. For now, Macron must decide whether to pick another centrist figure as prime minister or shift toward a candidate backed by the left — a choice that will test alliances in a fractured assembly and determine how Paris addresses an urgent fiscal squeeze and a volatile political landscape.
President Macron’s next steps are likely to set the tone for the remainder of his mandate: naming a new prime minister within days, attempting to forge fragile political agreements in a fragmented parliament, and seeking to win support for budget measures that analysts say are necessary to rein in debt and reassure markets while avoiding further social unrest.