For the third time in a year a French prime minister has resigned and the president has had to swiftly choose a replacement. What’s behind the chaos? Angelique Chrisafis reports
On Monday, French lawmakers filed into the national assembly in Paris where the embattled prime minister, François Bayrou, had called a confidence vote. It was on his unpopular austerity budget, one that he had hoped would tackle France’s mounting debt – but it would also decide his political future.
The gamble didn’t pay off. And, Angelique Chrisafis explains, France’s third prime minister in a year was forced to resign having held his post for just nine months. Outside town halls across France, protestors celebrated with “goodbye drinks” – popping open bottles of wine and carrying signs reading “bye bye Bayrou”, Lucy Hough hears.
Bayrou’s fall leaves Emmanuel Macron with a divided parliament, surging far-right opponents and a deepening debt crisis. Macron has moved surprisingly quickly to announce a new PM. But today, a national day of action called ‘block everything’ will see tens of thousands of protestors striking, blockading roads and occupying secondary schools and universities. What can calm France’s political chaos?
