The prime minister’s austerity plans have ignited fury across the board, leaving Macron’s government vulnerable at home just as Europe leans on France abroad
T
he traditional post-summer rentrée feels almost incomplete without an accompanying political crisis in France. And right on cue this year’s return from les grandes vacances has delivered – but in the form of a shock move that could collapse the government within a fortnight, plunging Europe’s second biggest economy into chaos.
Prime minister François Bayrou stunned the country on Monday by announcing he would seek a “back me or sack me” confidence vote in the national assembly on 8 September. For a minority prime minister, it is a risky gamble indeed – he has almost no chance of winning the vote, wrote Angelique Chrisafis, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent.
France is now bracing for political paralysis or destabilisation – as well as its debt crisis – at a time when geopolitical demands are intensifying: the war in Ukraine and Russia’s threat to Europe’s security; EU/US trade tensions and an escalating row with the Trump administration over France’s expected recognition of Palestine. As the EU’s biggest military power, France is co-leader of the western coalition that could potentially send troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal. Yet President Macron’s international focus may soon have to switch to the domestic search for a new prime minister.
