PARIS – Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government collapsed on Monday night after deputies rejected his confidence motion by 364 votes to 194.
The result prolongs France’s political crisis, making Bayrou the fourth prime minister in just over a year and, like his predecessor Michel Barnier, he was brought down over the budget.
In a last-ditch appeal before the vote, Bayrou warned that “submission to debt is like submission by arms,” noting that France’s borrowings had reached €3.415 trillion.
Defying both the left and the far right, he reminded lawmakers they had the “power to topple the government” but not the power “to erase reality.”
But Socialist group chairman Boris Vallaud, in a scathing speech, denounced Bayrou’s “false promises and betrayals,” declaring that “it is now for the left to govern.”
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen increased the pressure on Emmanuel Macron, urging him to “step aside before the people.” Dissolving the Assembly, she insisted, “is not an option but an obligation.
After calling the vote in August over France’s “disastrous finances,” the prime minister stepped up his media appearances to convince the French of the benefits of his €44 billion austerity policy.
By Monday, he seemed resigned to leaving office, closing his address with a timid “appeal for compromise.” He is set to hand in his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.
Nine months in power
After the fall of Barnier in December 2024, Bayrou told Macron that he aspired to “achieve great things” in the 30 months he had until the 2027 presidential election.
Upon taking office in January, he managed to negotiate a fragile “no-confidence pact” with the Socialist Party (PS).
Yet he failed to revise the deeply unpopular 2023 pension reform, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, alienating even the least combative of his opponents on the left.
The far-right National Rally initially chose to play the responsibility card, ruling out moves to topple the government in the spring.
But Marine Le Pen’s first-instance conviction in the European Parliament assistants’ case convinced her it was time to turn the tables and push for power, as her presidential bid hangs by a thread.
And so Bayrou has lasted only nine months in Matignon, despite his reputation as a skilled negotiator.
And now?
Macron took nearly two months to appoint Barnier after the second round of the snap parliamentary elections in the summer of 2024, and 10 days to designate Bayrou as his replacement.
This time, the Élysée reacted within minutes of the result, saying the president had “taken note” of Bayrou’s fall and would appoint a successor in the coming days.
With demonstrations and strikes due to kick off on 10 September, Macron is under pressure to move faster. “Farewell parties” to celebrate Bayrou’s downfall are already being organised on Monday in front of many town halls across France.
Beyond the 2026 budget, a host of issues remain unresolved, from signing the agreement with Mercosur countries to finding a compromise on the status of the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.
At the end of August, the French president had promised that the “economic agenda” defined with Chancellor Friedrich Merz would be carried through to completion, even if the government were to fall.
For now, Macron’s priority will be to appoint a new prime minister capable of sparing him from another dissolution.
UPDATED: The article has been updated to include the Élysée’s reaction.
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