After only nine months at the head of the government, François Bayrou was forced to leave Matignon. The National Assembly adopted a motion of distrust on Monday by 364 votes against 194ending the fragile experience of his minority government.
This awaited but resounding setback reflects the extent of the political crisis that France is going through. Appointed in December 2024 by Emmanuel Macron, Bayrou embodied the president’s attempt to find a figure of consensus in the midst of a broken parliamentary landscape. But his passage to Matignon was marked by a political unpopular of austerity and a persistent opposition from all the camps.
François Bayrou becomes the third Prime Minister overturned in less than a yearafter Elisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal. This succession of government crises reflects Emmanuel Macron’s difficulties in stabilizing a majority and imposing his agenda in an assembly where no camp alone holds power.
The president now finds himself faced with a dilemma: trying a new appointment – it would be the fourth in less than two years – or summon early elections, at the risk of opening political uncertainty even more.
A fragmented political landscape
The oppositions, from the left to the far right, all praised the fall of the Bayrou government as a victory against what they denounce as a technocratic and disconnected management. But they do not manage to draw a clear and unified alternative.
In this climate of division and instability, France is entering a new phase of political uncertainty, where each presidential decision could deeply reconfigure the institutional landscape.
