French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a confidence motion in parliament, forcing a third change in government in just over a year and reviving uncertainty over how the country can tackle its mounting debt burden.
Parties across the political spectrum in France’s lower house joined forces Monday to overwhelmingly issue the rebuke to Bayrou, who called the motion in a failed attempt to rally support for his unpopular budget reforms. Just 194 lawmakers voted in support of the prime minister and 364 voted against.
President Emmanuel Macron will now have to decide whether to name a new premier or dissolve the National Assembly and call a new election, which would throw the country and markets into another period of chaos. The new government would still have to find a way to pass a new budget — an exercise that has now toppled the last two prime ministers.
France is “drowning in a tide of debt,” Bayrou told lawmakers Monday ahead of the vote. “You have the power to bring down the government but you don’t have the power to erase reality.”