The announcement yesterday by Prime Minister François Bayrou that he will call for a vote of confidence of the National Assembly on Sept. 8, to ratify a €44 billion austerity cut in the 2027 budget, is a death sentence for his government, given the overall opposition to those cuts and the fact that the government does not have a majority. If this happens, President Emmanuel Macron will be left with three options: 1) find a new Prime Minister acceptable to all the factions, which is quite unlikely; 2) dissolve the National Assembly and organize new legislative elections, hoping to get a new majority; or 3) resign as President.
The last three governments—Sarkozy, Hollande and Macron—are known for having granted massive “public aid” with no conditions to the largest private companies, to the tune of €211 billion per year. Now there is not only no attempt to “claw back” those gifts, but instead the government plans to impose cutbacks which target retirees and the working class. Bayrou’s decision to eliminate two days of paid national holidays has crystallized the anger of the population.
Following Bayrou’s announcement yesterday, Mélenchon’s party, the Socialist Party and the Green Party, on the left, and Le Pen’s National Gathering, on the far right, announced that they will not vote in favor of the government, leaving no hope that the government will survive.
