Prime Minister François Bayrou of France lost his vote of no confidence in the National Assembly on Monday, 8 September, and thus has been removed from office. PM Bayrou served for less than a year, having assumed office in December 2024 after his predecessor Michel Barnier also lost a vote of confidence, in a testament to the political instability of the Western European nation.
364 representatives have voted against the Prime Minister, while 194 have voted in favour of him in the ousting procedure, which was well above the 280-vote threshold needed to pass. PM Bayrou has decided to call a vote of no confidence against himself in response to the backlash against a very unpopular austerity package put forth by him. His proposals would have removed two national holidays and frozen government spending.
Last year, President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble coalition suffered a massive defeat in the European Parliamentary election in France, losing the popular vote by over 15 points to the right-wing populist Rassemblement national led by Marine Le Pen. In response, President Macron called a snap legislative election. RN still won by over 10 points over the runner-up finisher Nouveau Front populaire. However, due to the other parties’ collusion of having their candidates drop out to support each other in key races, RN only took the third most seats in the Assembly. The surge in support for the right-wing party came in large part due to the local population’s frustration with mass migration into the country.
Now, the leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is calling on President Macron to resign and follow suit of the Prime Minister in leaving office. ‘Macron is now on the front line facing the people. He too must go,’ he has stated, as quoted by the BBC. However, that is unlikely, as the President has always maintained that he intends to serve out the remainder of his second term. He is term-limited and will not be able to run for re-election in 2027. His next order of business will be appointing a new Prime Minister.
Marine Le Pen of Rassemblement national has also spoken out, saying that PM Bayrou losing his vote of no confidence is the sign of ‘the end of the agony of a phantom government’; and blamed the left-wing parties of France for what she calls ‘the collapse of the century’.
As for the markets’ reaction, French long-term bond yields have jumped, above the bonds of other European countries in response to the news about the instability in the government. Trading had already stopped on the French stock exchanges for the day by the time the news broke, so we will have to wait until tomorrow for the stock market’s reaction.
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