France’s PM Francois Bayrou Loses Confidence Vote, Government Collapses

World

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has lost a confidence vote in Parliament, deepening a political crisis and forcing President Emmanuel Macron to seek his fifth head of government in less than two years.

Bayrou, who had been in office for nine months, will tender his resignation on Tuesday, his office confirmed. The Elysee said a new appointment would be announced “in the coming days.”

The National Assembly voted 364–194 to bring down Bayrou’s government over its plan to cut €44 billion ($52bn) in spending to tackle what he described as France’s “life-threatening” debt. The proposed budget aimed to reduce a deficit nearly twice the EU’s 3 percent limit and a debt burden amounting to 114 percent of GDP.

Before the vote, Bayrou warned lawmakers that rejecting the plan would not erase fiscal reality: “Expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly.”

Bayrou becomes the sixth prime minister to fall under Macron since his first election in 2017, leaving the president with a new domestic challenge while he leads France’s diplomatic push on the Ukraine war.