French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou reacts after the result of a vote on a motion of no-confidence against the French government at the National Assembly in Paris, France, Jan. 16, 2025.
Benoit Tessier | Reuters
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and his centrist minority government were ousted in a confidence vote in France’s National Assembly on Monday.
Bayrou was widely expected to lose the motion — that he had called himself — after failing to win support from political rivals on both the right and left for 2026 budget plans aimed at reducing the country’s yawning budget deficit.
Losing the confidence vote means President Emmanuel Macron will now have to appoint a replacement who will be France’s fifth prime minister in less than two years. Macron is seen as likely to choose another centrist ally to lead a minority government.
Political and economic upheaval has dominated Europe’s third-largest economy after inconclusive snap parliamentary elections last year saw parties on both the left and right win consecutive rounds of polling.
Angered by being overlooked by Macron, political parties on both sides have threatened to overthrow his chosen minority administrations who have proposed spending cuts and some tax rises in order to reign in a budget deficit of 5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024.
Bayrou’s government was targeting around 44 billion euros ($51 billion) in cuts in the 2026 budget in a bid to get the deficit down to 4.6% of GDP in 2026, still way above EU rules that call for its member states’ budget deficits to not exceed 3% of GDP.
The collapse of Bayrou’s government comes less than a year after Michel Barnier’s short-lived administration imploded last December. Barnier was ousted in a no-confidence vote after he tried to use special constitutional powers to force a social security budget bill through the National Assemby without a vote.
