The government of François Bayrou, a centrist prime minister who has been in office for just nine months, collapsed Monday in the latest sign of a France reduced to chronic political instability and an incapacity to confront its growing financial crisis. The National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, voted overwhelmingly against Bayrou in a confidence motion he had called with the aim of setting out the gravity of France’s ballooning debt and budget deficit, and the need to confront them by finding annual savings of at least $51 billion. The vote was 364 against Bayrou’s government and 194 in favor in the 577-seat lower house, a crushing defeat for the prime minister. Abstentions and absences accounted for the remaining lawmakers. With four prime ministers in the past 20 months, and a fifth likely to be appointed now, the fall of French governments, once unusual, has become close to mundane. “All the challenges facing us come down to one essential, urgent question, the one on which our future, our state, our independence, our public services and social model depend — that is the question of controlling our spending and our excessive debt,” Bayrou declared to a packed lower house. “Domination by military force, or domination by our creditors as a result of debts that drown us, produces the same result: The loss of our liberty,” Bayrou said, to opposition cries of “It’s not the same thing!” His appeal fell on deaf ears. The far right of Marine Le Pen and a group of left and far-left parties, holding a clear majority between them, rejected the freezing of welfare payments, cutting two national holidays and other austerity measures proposed by Bayrou. Le Pen, true to her National Rally party’s doctrine, suggested cutting spending on immigrants instead. The fall of Bayrou thrust France into a political void bereft of plausible answers. It placed renewed pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, who has become an isolated figure even as he attempts to play a central international role in ending the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. This effort has taken up much of his time. Soon after the parliamentary vote, Macron issued a statement saying he would accept the resignation of Bayrou on Tuesday and name a new prime minister “in the next few days.”
