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The French government is facing a serious political crisis. Prime Minister François Bayrou has had difficulty getting his proposals to reduce French national debt and achieve a better balance in the budget through. He has now declared that he wants parliament to hold a vote of confidence on September 8. This is to test whether parliament is really ready to reject the austerity policy that he, and many others, believe is necessary for France.
In France, there is much talk of the purely political crisis rather than the economic one. During his second term, President Macron has had difficulty appointing governments that have been able to gather stable support in the National Assembly. And after the parliament was dissolved after the last European elections in 2024, the situation has become even worse.
In the parliamentary elections that were held in 2024, Macron’s center bloc was weakened, but Macron has nevertheless appointed prime ministers from this very bloc. The current Prime Minister, Francois Bayrou, is the fourth Prime Minister during Macron’s second presidential term and the second Prime Minister since the new parliament was elected in 2024.
But apart from the purely political situation, which is partly due to France’s electoral system but also to the refusal of the French political center to ally itself with either the nationalist right or the radical left, it is interesting to discuss the economic causes of the crisis.
It is a well-known fact that the French have difficulty accepting economic reforms that in any way imply less privileged living conditions. Whether it is a matter of lowering the retirement age or worsening working conditions, any French government that goes ahead with such measures risks being met with strikes and violent protests in the streets.
Prime Minister Bayrou is now trying to take responsibility and create better public finances. We can all have opinions on the proposals he is putting forward. Among other things, he wants to abolish two public holidays so that the French will work more and become more productive. Other governments have previously tried to raise the retirement age.
The point is that a country, its politicians and its people must take responsibility for their economy at some point. Like many other Western countries, France has not had a balanced budget for several decades. It now has a debt of around 110 percent of GDP, which in 2024 was the third highest figure in the EU after Greece and Italy. The EU has a set of rules that state that member states may not have more than 60 percent of GDP in government debt and a three percent budget deficit. France is one of the countries that regularly violates these principles.
François Bayrou seems determined to break the trend. This is impressive considering the weak support he has in the very divided parliament. It shows a willingness to take real responsibility for the country’s long-term development.
Now he risks losing the vote of confidence. Then France will once again be thrown into a political crisis where an already weakened and unpopular president will try to appoint a government with the possibility of finding parliamentary support for meaningful policies.
The parties of the large left bloc as well as the National Rally have already declared that they will not express their confidence in Bayrou in the vote on September 8. If they stick to it, Bayrou will therefore not have a majority in parliament and will then have to resign.
This situation could have been avoided if decades of irresponsible spending of common resources had never happened. The problems can be postponed for a few more years. One can hope for a future economic miracle. However, a responsible attitude on the part of all politicians in France should still consist of tackling the problems now and giving the Prime Minister the support he needs to initiate the necessary reforms for all.