Government breakdown: France's debt crisis becomes a permanent problem for the EU

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|- French Prime Minister François Bayrou has fallen after less than nine months over his austerity plans, which were intended to save 44 billion euros.
- France's national debt amounts to 114 percent of economic output and could rise to 150 percent within seven years without consolidation.
- The EU Commission has opened an excessive deficit procedure against France, which is intended to bring the excessive deficit under control by 2029.
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Once again, a French government has fallen over its austerity plans, and the financial markets remain conspicuously calm. But that could soon change: A path to solid public finances is nowhere in sight.
In the end, there he stood, François Bayrou, the lone voice in the wilderness, and he had failed. Until the very last moment, he had admonished France's warring political camps for accountability and tried to swear them to his austerity policy, however hopeless this was. The excessive public debt, Bayrou said, was "life-threatening" for France . Now he's out, after less than nine months. But the life-threatening danger he speaks of remains. Now, until further notice, there is no prospect of intensive medical treatment that would find sufficient support in political Paris .
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