France's parliament – deadlocked for a year and more poisonously divided than it has been in decades – looks set to throw out yet another prime minister on Monday.
But the acute sense of drama surrounding this latest vote of confidence inside Paris's Assemblée Nationale is counterbalanced by a despondent consensus that the almost inevitable removal of 74-year-old François Bayrou, after nine relatively ineffectual months in office, will do nothing to break France's political stalemate.
"It's a disaster. The situation is absolutely blocked," veteran political commentator Bruno Cautrès told the BBC.
Others have been even harsher in their diagnosis.
Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of the hard-right National Rally party, accused Bayrou of committing "political suicide".
