France faces a new political crisis. The French National Assembly rejected this Monday the motion of confidence in François Bayrou's minority government, which aimed to force consensus to cut more than 40 billion euros in public spending to reduce the deficit and public debt. The opposition united to reject the motion, and thus France bids farewell to yet another prime minister.

The outcome of the vote was expected, after Marine Le Pen's far-right party, the Rassemblement National (RN), the Socialist Party (PS), and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise (LFI) announced they would vote against the motion of confidence. The conservative party Les Républicains (LR) – which was part of François Bayrou's government – gave deputies a free vote and criticized the government. With more than half of the votes against, the French prime minister was ousted.

Before the vote, François Bayrou addressed MPs, saying that a budgetary containment plan was needed to revive the French economy and balance public finances. He argued that each year, France"is a little poorer" and will face "in a few years" an "inexorable tide of debt," and that the economic and budgetary crisis the country is currently facing is a "silent, subterranean, invisible, and unbearable hemorrhage."

"Ladies and gentlemen, you have the power to overthrow the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality. And reality will remain inexorable. Expenses will continue to increase even further, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will become increasingly heavier and more expensive," argued the outgoing prime minister.

But François Bayrou's arguments didn't convince the opposition. During the debate, the opposition accused the leader of being"solely responsible" for the country's current situation, of advocating a"plan of chaos," and of being a "pyromaniac firefighter." To bring the deficit down to 3% by 2029, François Bayrou proposed cutting new public sector hiring, freezing some social benefits, and eliminating two national holidays. On the revenue side, he proposed the creation of a"solidarity levy" on "the wealthiest."

In response, Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance (RE) party and the Democratic Movement (MoDem) – which are part of the government and voted in favor of François Bayrou's confidence vote – accused the far-right and left-wing coalition parties of being"deficit-skeptics." Currently, France's deficit is almost double the 3% permitted by Brussels, and public debt is above 110% of GDP.

What will Macron do?

With the government dismissed, it remains to be seen what the French president will do. Emmanuel Macron has three options on the table: appoint a new prime minister to replace François Bayrou, who must be approved by a majority of French parliamentarians (with a minimum of 289 votes in favor); dissolve the National Assembly and lead the country to early legislative elections; or opt for his own resignation.

François Bayrou is expected to formally submit his resignation to the French leader on Tuesday, and only then will Emmanuel Macron address the nation. After ruling out the possibility of resigning, the French head of state's planned solution to end the current political crisis is expected to involve appointing a new prime minister. And the intention is to do so as quickly as possible. The plan is to choose and present François Bayrou's successor by September 18, the day a nationwide general strike is scheduled.

However, during the debate, the far-right party stated that Emmanuel Macron has an"institutional obligation" to call new legislative elections. La France Insoumise went further and announced that it will move forward with a plan to impeach the head of state, as it did (unsuccessfully) in September 2024.

Emmanuel Macron had five different prime ministers implementing his political agenda : Jean Castex, Élisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, and François Bayrou. The latter had the fourth-shortest term of the French Fifth Republic, governing for only 269 days.