Why France’s Government Just Collapsed After a Confidence Vote?

A total of 364 MPs voted against Bayrou and 194 voted for him after he called the vote in a bid to push through an unpopular €44 billion ($51 billion) savings plan that included scrapping two public holidays and freezing government spending. The 364 votes against Bayrou were well above the 280-vote threshold needed to topple the government, CNN reported.

Bayrou will now be forced to step down after just nine months in office, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Michel Barnier, who lost a no-confidence vote last December.

French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister in the coming days, according to the Élysée Palace. But Bayrou’s departure leaves Macron with few palatable options.

Investors have been rattled. Yields on French government bonds – or the interest rate demanded by investors – have risen above those of Spanish, Portuguese and Greek bonds, which were once at the heart of the eurozone debt crisis. A possible downgrade of France’s sovereign debt rating review Friday would deliver another blow to its economic standing in Europe.

According to the CNN report, the political instability can be traced back to Macron’s own dramatic decision last year to call a snap election. Piqued by the remarkable results of the far-right National Rally in the European Parliament elections of May 2024, the French president forced a vote in which his party lost seats to the far right and far left, leaving France with a splintered parliament.