The adage that it is almost never a good idea to call for a vote of confidence while in charge of a beleaguered minority government was disregarded in France on 8 September 2025, with predictable results. François Bayrou, Prime Minister since December 2024, invoked Article 49.1 of the French Constitution and took his austerity proposals to 573 lawmakers in the Assemblée Nationale on that very day, only to lose the confidence vote by 364 votes to 194. The 74-year-old Bayrou had no choice but to resign, along with his government, on the following day. He was soon replaced by the youthful Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Armed Forces for the last three years, who at 39 is just over half his age.
Lecornu became France’s fifth Prime Minister in less than two years, and the seventh to serve under President Macron- somewhat later than originally planned for. His initial appointment as Prime Minister on 13 December 2024 had indeed been blocked by Bayrou himself. The only son of an aeronautical technician and a medical secretary, hailing from Normandy, Lecornu was an early entrant to the world of politics, initially with the UMP (Union pour un mouvement populaire) and then les républicaines, becoming mayor of Vernon (Eure département) in 2014, aged just 27. He switched over to Macron’s new political movement in 2017, shifting his allegiances from Nicolas Sarkozy, and is widely considered to be a Macron loyalist.
The current crisis is all to do with the state of the French economy. For the financial year ending March 2025, France had a national debt of 114% of GDP, amounting to e 3.345 trillion and surpassed only by Greece and Italy, and a budget deficit of 5.8% of GDP. The costs of government borrowing, as measured by the yield (interest rate) on government bonds have risen. At the same time, government spending accounts for 57.3% of GDP, offset in part by tax receipts equating to 51.4% of GDP. Bayrou’s prescription for France’s woes, in budget proposals that he announced in mid-July, involved cuts to public services, freezing welfare payments and medical deductibles, further delaying the state pension age, and even scrapping two public holidays (Easter Monday and VE Day- 8 May) to achieve savings of 44 billion euros in government spending in the next budget. The aim was to lower the annual budget deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2029.
The French people are particularly knowledgeable about, and protective of, their rights and entitlements. These proposals were accordingly rejected by Bayrou’s opponents from either end of the political spectrum. Debt repayment and the cost of debt servicing, associated with a higher risk premium, apparently concern relatively few, while most French citizens are more worried about the high cost of living, declining public services, and cuts to the state’s generous unemployment and pension benefits.
The national, unstructured, and leaderless Bloquons tout (Let’s Block Everything) movement, launched in May 2025 on the “Indignons-nous” channel on Telegram, is rapidly gathering momentum. Participants from a variety of political backgrounds will participate in comprehensive and well-orchestrated protests in several French towns and cities on 10 September, extending to all corners of le Hexagone. Blockades, rallies, and parades are all part of the day’s actions, which are aimed at paralysing the country. Gendarmes and police are being mobilised to tackle planned blockades of ring roads, motorways, roundabouts, airports, train stations, tram depots, shopping malls, hypermarkets, hospitals, universities, high schools, industrial sites, nuclear power plants, oil refineries, logistics warehouses, and other sites of protester activity. Tear gas, stun grenades, water cannon are part of their armamentarium, given their brief to both prevent and contain violence. Lecornu’s first day in office is likely to prove to be a baptism of fire, added to which a second wave of protests has already been planned for 18 September.
The French have mastered the art of organised nationwide public protest. In this instance, they are drawing attention to the impacts on their daily lives of the fragile French economy and directing their anger at the patrician and “tone-deaf” President Macron and the “out-of-touch “political elites. The problem is, however, that high public expectations and the monies available for their fulfilment are at odds with each other. The thirty glorious post-war years (les trente glorieuses) have long passed-gone forever. Whichever way you look at it, restoring the state of health of the French economy is likely to prove both costly and painful. Meanwhile, Macron may have to reconsider his own position in the light of his growing unpopularity, despite his significant presence on the international stage, as he serves out the last two years of his presidential term.
Ashis Banerjee