Bayrou’s Government Collapses After Confidence Vote Defeat as Macron Faces Renewed Crisis

Mace | 8th September 2025 | Brussels, International, Politics
PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 01:  Francois Bayrou arrives a French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron is about to give a political meeting at Grande Halle de La Villette on May 1, 2017 in Paris, France.  Emmanuel Macron faces President of the National Front, Marine Le Pen  in the final round of the French presidential elections on May 07.   (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 01: Francois Bayrou arrives a French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron is about to give a political meeting at Grande Halle de La Villette on May 1, 2017 in Paris, France. Emmanuel Macron faces President of the National Front, Marine Le Pen in the final round of the French presidential elections on May 07. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)

France’s Prime Minister has been ousted after losing a confidence vote over a failed austerity budget. The collapse leaves President Macron facing the task of appointing yet another prime minister amid a gridlocked parliament, growing economic pressures, and increasing political instability at home and abroad.

France’s fragile executive has fallen again as Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a confidence motion in the National Assembly, securing just 194 votes in favour against 364 opposed, prompting his resignation and deepening a political impasse in President Emmanuel Macron’s second term. The vote took place as Bayrou sought parliamentary backing for a strict austerity budget intended to rein in soaring public debt. France’s public debt now stands at approximately 114 percent of GDP. With his centrist coalition lacking a majority, Bayrou’s proposal failed to win support across a fractured Assembly. The defeat follows a string of government collapses since the June 2024 snap election, which delivered a hung parliament and empowered both the far-left and far-right. Bayrou’s appointment in December 2024 had been seen as a bid to restore fiscal stability amid mounting concerns from financial markets and ratings agencies. His fall comes nine months later without any breakthrough reforms. Macr...

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