With the predicted fall of François Bayrou, Emmanuel Macron faces the risk of a destabilized mandate

With nine days to go before the National Assembly's confidence vote, a near-lost outcome for François Bayrou, all eyes are now on the head of state. The centrist's announced departure brings to four the number of prime ministers who have served in the Prime Minister's office since 2022—a record under the ^Fifth Republic. This is a bittersweet moment for Emmanuel Macron, who is struggling to ward off the precariousness that is hitting the executive branch hard. All the government combinations attempted so far by the Élysée Palace incumbent have collapsed due to the lack of a majority and substantial reforms.

So, on Friday, August 29, when the head of state was questioned about the probable dismissal of the Bayrou government on September 8, he again called on the "responsibility" of the opposition, which, from the left to the National Rally (RN), refuses to give its confidence to the prime minister. "I want to believe that the work he will carry out in the coming days will make it possible to convince that even if there are disagreements on the technical measures [of the budget] (…) there can at least be some paths of agreement on the observation [of the debt] ” , he stressed at the end of the Franco-German council of ministers in Toulon. While he considers François Bayrou's gamble "not totally crazy" , "for the rest, I'm not doing political fiction" , he said.

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