Paris politics has once again descended into chaos, as the government of Prime Minister François Bayrou collapsed on Monday after the National Assembly overwhelmingly voted against a confidence measure brought forward by the embattled PM in a last-ditch effort to pass through a national budget.
The deadlock over the budget came in large part as a result of President Macron’s Machiavellian move during last summer’s legislative elections to form a pact between his centrist coalition and the leftist New Popular Front (NFP) in the second round of voting after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally looked to be on the cusp of taking power. The move resulted in a three-way split within the National Assembly, with no faction able to govern effectively.
Macron first turned to former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier; however, despite his reputation as a firm hand, his government collapsed in just over three months after the Eurocrat attempted to push through budget measures without a vote in the parliament. Unable to dissolve the National Assembly for a year after the previous election, Macron then turned to long-time ally and Mayor of Pau, François Bayrou, in a second attempt at bridging the divided legislature.
Facing soaring debt and budget deficits — the consequences of which may result in economic sanctions from the European Union or a downgrading of the nation’s credit — Bayrou has proposed a series of tax hikes on top earners, welfare cuts, and a reduction in the number of public holidays to help balance the books. Yet, he was unable to convince either the left wing or Le Pen’s National Rally to support his budget. Facing the prospect of defeat, Bayrou took a risky gamble of attempting to call their bluff by demanding a vote of confidence himself.
Appearing before the hemicycle parliament in Paris on Monday, the Prime Minister said per Le Figaro: “Ladies and gentlemen, you have the power to overthrow the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality. The reality will remain inexorable. Expenses will continue to increase even more and the weight of the debt, already unbearable, will become increasingly heavy and more expensive.”
“The political forces that announce that they will bring down the government are the most opposite political forces to each other, those that designate themselves as enemies, those that are incompatible with ideas as well as with ulterior motives, and who exchange insults and accusations from one end of the hemicycle to the other.”
Despite his last-ditch pleas, Bayrou was voted down by a margin of 364 to 194, becoming the first PM of the Fifth Republic to be voted out in a confidence measure he introduced. Bayrou will also gain the distinction of being the fourth-shortest tenured prime minister of the Fifth Republic at just 269 days, following Barnier at 91 days, Bernard Cazeneuve at 155 days, and Gabriel Attal at 240. Bayrou is expected to hand in his resignation on Tuesday morning to the president.
The ousting of Bayrou will force President Macron to take one of two options. He can either attempt to install another prime minister and continue the fight within the deeply divided National Assembly, or he can dissolve the parliament and call fresh legislative elections.
The two main factions that brought down the government appear to be at odds over this question, with members of the New Popular Front calling on Macron to appoint a leftist government from their ranks, including the Socialist and Ecologist parties. Conversely, Le Pen’s National Rally is calling for new elections, despite Le Pen potentially being banned from running over a disputed legal decision earlier this year alleging misuse of EU funds by her party.
Speaking before the Assembly on Monday, Le Pen said: “A president is never wrong to rely on the people… The dissolution is not a whim; it is an institutional lever to get out of the blockages and allow democratic functioning.”
“If there is a dissolution, we will accept the verdict of the polls. If the people do us the honour of a clear mandate, that is, an absolute majority, we will go to Matignon to implement, without waiting for the presidential election, a national recovery program.”
Turning to the prime minister, the National Rally leader said: “You can’t cry in front of the cameras about the consequences of the misdeeds you, yourself, committed,” adding that the political establishment of both the left and the right in Paris has engaged in “five decades of expensive management.”
Le Pen ally Eric Ciotti accused Prime Minister Bayrou of behaving like a “pyromaniac firefighter”, saying: “You are, with Emmanuel Macron, the architects of the French debacle… You have been cracking matches on kerosene puddles for eight years, but we should trust you to put out the fire. Sweet joke”.
Ciotti suggested that the confidence vote called by Bayrou was merely a dressed-up resignation that would be used as a “launch pad for a pseudo-candidacy in the presidential election.”
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