Macron tries to hold the center During a day of high drama in parliament, opposition parties rounded on Macron as the protagonist responsible for the stalemate engulfing France.
Communist parliamentary leader Stéphane Peu likened the crisis to “Saving Private Ryan” with Bayrou being “the fourth prime minister to fall to save President Macron.” After the vote, many called for Macron to step down.
Sensing an opportunity for the left, the Socialist Vallaud called on the liberal President Macron to “do his duty” and appoint a prime minister from their ranks.
The left-right tightrope Theoretically, a government backed by both the Socialists and Les Républicains would have wider support in parliament than Bayrou’s outgoing center-right government.
But why would the Socialists and Les Républicains — generally at daggers drawn — actually work together?
PARIS — The path President Emmanuel Macron has to take to escape the political and economic crisis that is engulfing France now appears to be extremely limited.
Prime Minister François Bayrou, his main ally, was overthrown in a brutal no-confidence vote on Monday, with only 194 lawmakers voting in favor of him and 364 voting against him.
Although Macron’s office quickly announced that he would set up the appointment of the nation’s fifth prime minister in less than two years “in the next few days,” there are serious concerns that the new leader will be any more successful than Bayrou in enacting the tens of billions of euros in budget cuts required to rescue the second-largest economy in the EU from a soaring debt crisis.
Now that a nationwide shutdown is being threatened in September, Macron is directly under public criticism. Trade unions have scheduled ten and significant protests for September. 18. The president is now less popular than he was during the height of the Yellow Vest protests in 2018 and 2019, one of the worst crises of his presidency, according to polls. His popularity has fallen to an all-time low.
Macron remains optimistic about his ability to wriggle his way out of the worst of situations, much like Houdini. He is hoping to form a minority government with the conservative Les Républicains party, the moderate left, and the centrists in order to finally agree on the budget.
Macron, however, is most likely clinging to control over a nation that appears to be becoming unmanageable. The magnitude of Bayrou’s Monday parliamentary defeat and the indications from lawmakers already point to the failure of his attempts from the start.
Macron attempts to remain moderate.
Opposition parties pinned the blame for the impasse engulfing France on Macron during a day of intense drama in parliament.
The president of the Republic is solely to blame for the crisis, the disaster, and the instability, according to Boris Vallaud, the parliamentary leader of the Socialist Party.
The crisis was compared to “Saving Private Ryan” by Communist parliamentary leader Stéphane Peu, who said that Bayrou was “the fourth prime minister to fall to save President Macron.”. “”.
Many demanded that Macron resign after the vote. Mathilde Panot, the parliamentary leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, stated, “If the president is unwilling to alter his policies, we will need to replace him.”.
The far-right National Rally, the party leading the polls, and the far left are on an anti-establishment rampage, threatening to topple any future administrations that cut public spending, making it extremely difficult for Macron to hold the center together.
Despite mounting concerns that France’s incapacity to organize its books could eventually strain the EU’s finances, the center-left Socialists and the center-right Les Républicains have fundamentally different views on the goals of economic policy, making it challenging to find a middle ground.
It’s all about the Socialists.
During his farewell address to the National Assembly, Bayrou cautioned against complacency regarding the extent of France’s financial crisis, stating that the country’s debt is “life-threatening.”.
He told lawmakers, “You have the power to overthrow the government, but not to erase reality.”.
In a short time, however, opposition leaders were already considering what might happen after Bayrou.
The Socialist Vallaud, recognizing a chance for the left, urged liberal President Macron to “do his duty” and select a member of their party to serve as prime minister. He declared, “Come and get us; we’re ready.”.
In addition to praising “another path” for France that would involve a more equitable tax system, he claimed that the Socialists would retaliate against Bayrou’s suggestion to abolish two bank holidays.
The Socialist Party was being mentioned in a variety of ways by Monday night.
They included a non-aggression pact that would see the Socialists refrain from overthrowing a center-right government headed by a left-leaning centrist in exchange for budget concessions, and a grand coalition that stretched from the conservatives to the Socialists (which is the least likely). In exchange for budgetary concessions, a similar agreement with Les Républicains is also being considered, whereby the latter would refrain from overthrowing a left-leaning government.
The tightrope between left and right.
Theoretically, a government backed by both the Socialists and Les Républicains would have wider support in parliament than Bayrou’s outgoing center-right government.
However, there is a chance that the Socialists and Les Républicains, who are usually at daggers drawn, will actually cooperate, and they may decide that it is better to make a compromise now to retain their parliamentary seats than to drive France into further turmoil and lose them in a snap election.
But in practice, failure is a real possibility.
As part of a pan-leftist coalition known as the New Popular Front, Les Républicains’ parliamentary leader Laurent Wauquiez issued a warning on Monday that his party would not back a socialist government that is overly influenced by other, more radical left-wing parties that they ran with in the previous election.
“We would never accept the New Popular Front’s nefarious political platform,” Wauquiez declared. And it goes without saying that any socialist government that upholds the principles of the New Popular Front is affected. “”.
Furthermore, in light of the March 2026 local elections, no opposition parties will be particularly interested in forming an alliance with a president who exudes fin de règne.
Furthermore, rank-and-file lawmakers might not follow through on a budget agreement even if the leaders of the centrist parties did.
Consider the Bayrou vote, which took place on Monday. Despite calls from Bruno Retailleau, the head of Les Républicains and Interior Minister, to support the government, the party was notably split, with 27 voting in favor of Bayrou and 13 against.
