French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou leaves the weekly cabinet meeting at the French Presidential Palace in Paris, August 27, 2025. ABDUL SABOOR / REUTERS
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, August 27, gave his “full support” to France’s embattled prime minister, who has called a confidence vote that could see his government collapse next month. Prime Minister François Bayrou said he would request the confidence vote in a bitterly divided parliament on September 8, as he tries to garner enough support for his plan to slash spending.
But the main opposition parties said they would not back the prime minister’s plan, with the far right urging Macron to call new parliamentary elections and the hard left saying the president himself must go.
Macron, now on his sixth prime minister since taking office in 2017, chaired a meeting of his cabinet on Wednesday. The president has given his “full support” to Bayrou’s initiative, spokesperson Sophie Primas told reporters after the meeting. Macron also called on France’s political parties “to act responsibly,” Primas added.
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The French president is weighing his options as he seeks to contain the looming political crisis. If the government falls after the September 8 vote, he could appoint a new prime minister, dissolve parliament again or resign. Macron gambled on snap polls last summer in a bid to head off the far-right and bolster his authority, but the move backfired and left a deadlocked parliament.
The president has said he wants to avoid dissolving the Assemblée Nationale again but has also suggested he could not rule out the option. Even some members of Macron’s camp now believe calling new elections might be the only solution. “No one wants it, but it is inevitable,” a senior member of the presidential team told AFP agency on condition of anonymity.
‘Dissolution’
The government has been facing discontent from the left and the right, with critics accusing the authorities of failing to take decisive action on issues like the spiraling cost of living, immigration and crime.
Edouard Philippe, a former prime minister and strong centrist contender for the 2027 presidential election, backed Bayrou but said a new dissolution of the lower house could happen in the event of a persistent deadlock. “If nothing happens, if no government can prepare a budget, how can this issue be resolved? Through dissolution,” he told AFP.
Green leader Marine Tondelier urged Macron to appoint a left-wing prime minister in line with the results of last summer’s snap polls, in which an alliance of leftist parties won the most seats last year but fell short of an absolute majority. “There is no suspense about the fact that Francois Bayrou will fall on September 8,” Tondelier told AFP. “Our movement is currently working on a crisis exit plan.”
Political jockeying is heating up ahead of the presidential election in 2027, when Macron’s second term is set to end, and the far-right senses a real chance to come to power. “There is only one way out of this political impasse we find ourselves in, and that is to return to the polls,” Jordan Bardella, head of the far-right National Rally party, told the TF1 television channel on Tuesday evening.
Separately, a broad anti-government campaign dubbed “Bloquons tout” (“Block everything”) and backed by the left has urged the French to stage a nationwide shutdown on September 10.
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After years of overspending, France is on notice to control its public deficit and cut its sprawling debt, as required under EU rules. Bayrou’s government and economic analysts have warned that France’s debt is unsustainable, particularly as interest rate rises push up the cost of borrowing. Bayrou said he wanted to save about €44 billion ($51 billion) with measures that include reducing the number of public holidays and placing a freeze on spending increases. In mid-July, he presented 2026 budget proposals, but the measures have proved deeply unpopular.
