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mong the risky political experiments undertaken during Emmanuel Macron's second term, the vote of confidence requested on Monday, September 8, by François Bayrou on the state of public finances will go down in history. Defeated by opponents ranging from the left to the far-right Rassemblement National, who together amassed 364 votes, the centrist became the first head of government under the Fifth Republic to fall in such a procedure. He also left behind a political wreckage.
The fragile coalition supporting him shrank further after the defection of Violette Spillebout, a Macronist lawmaker from the Nord department, who co-chaired the investigative committee on violence in schools. There were also divisions within the conservative Les Républicains (LR) party. Twenty-seven LR MPs voted in favor of confidence, including group leader Laurent Wauquiez, while 13 voted no and nine abstained.
Had France's debt been taken as seriously as Bayrou claimed, it never would have become a pretext for such a political maneuver. Realizing that he was losing his grip, the MoDem party president decided to take control of the situation himself. He made a final plea, emphasizing the gravity of the situation, and chose to fall on his own terms and at his own timing. The resulting disaster is absolute. Beyond the humiliation he endured, nothing fundamental was resolved, and the French president now faces an increasingly intractable political situation.
