By Thomas Adamson

Copyright independent

Prime minister Francois Bayrou yesterday submitted his resignation after losing a crushing confidence vote in parliament. The third toppling of a head of government in 14 months left president Emmanuel Macron scrambling for a successor and a nation caught in a cycle of collapse.

Bayrou (74) lasted just nine months in office. Even that was three times longer than his predecessor.

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He gambled on a budget demanding over €40bn in savings. The plan froze welfare, cut civil-service jobs, and even scrapped two public holidays that many French see as part of their national rhythm.

Bayrou warned that without action the national debt, which is now 114pc of GDP, would bring “domination by creditors” as surely as by foreign powers. Instead, he united his enemies.

The far right of Marine Le Pen and a left-wing alliance voted him down, 364 to 194. Polls showed most French wanted him gone. By the time lawmakers cast their ballots yesterday, Bayrou already had invited allies to a farewell drink.

Macron named loyalist Sebastien Lecornu, a one-time conservative protege who rallied behind his 2017 presidential run, as prime minister yesterday afternoon, defying expectations he might tack towards the left.

The choice of defence minister Lecornu (39) indicates Macron’s determination to press on with a minority government that stands firmly behind his pro-business economic reform agenda, under which taxes on business and the wealthy have been cut and the retirement age raised.

However, Macron’s office said in a statement the president had asked Lecornu to hold talks with all political forces in parliament in view of finding compromises on the budget and other policies before naming his cabinet, in an unusual move in French politics.

Since Macron’s snap election in 2024, parliament has been split into three rival blocs: far left, centrists, and far right. None commands a majority. France has no tradition of coalition-building and every budget becomes a battle.

Macron has ruled out another election for now. Le Pen insists he must call one. Opinion polls suggest her National Rally would cement its lead if he did. With just 18 months left in his presidency and his approval rating at 15pc, the risk for Macron is existential. About 11,000 demonstrators feted Bayrou’s ouster outside town halls.

Today was declared a day of action under the slogan “Block Everything”. Protesters plan to shut fuel depots, motorways, and city centres. The government is deploying 80,000 police.

France has seen mass uprisings before: pensions in 2023, the yellow vests in 2018. But this time the anger runs deeper. It is not just about one reform. It is about austerity, inequality and the sense that governments keep collapsing while nothing changes. The numbers are stark. France’s deficit stands at nearly 6pc of GDP, which is about €198bn. EU rules demand it be cut below 3pc.

Bayrou’s cure was cuts that fell on workers and retirees. Voters saw this as unfair. After years of tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, patience has snapped. Polls show an overwhelming majority of French people want higher taxes on the ultra-rich. Earlier this year, the lower house passed a rich tax – a 2pc levy on fortunes above €100m. It would have hit fewer than 2,000 households but raised €25bn annually. Yet Macron’s pro-business allies, wary of scaring off investment, killed it in the senate.

Bayrou pressed on with cuts that hit the working and middle classes the most. For many, the contrast was glaring: austerity for millions, protection for billionaires.

Le Pen, convicted of embezzlement and barred from office for five years, is appealing her sentence from January. In the meantime, she promotes her protege Jordan Bardella.

Abroad, Macron seeks to project French influence in Ukraine and Gaza. At home, he looks cornered. Even whispers of resignation can be heard, though his departure is unlikely. Four prime ministers in 16 months. A debt crisis grinding the economy. A nation paralysed by political deadlock. It sounds like France today. In fact, it was France after World War II.

Out of that paralysis, Charles de Gaulle built the Fifth Republic, a system meant to banish such chaos forever. Seven decades later, the Republic he forged to ward off collapse is confronting the very crisis it was designed to prevent.

“The question posed now is that of the survival of our political system,” political analyst Alain Duhamel told the newspaper Le Monde. “In 1958 there was an alternative in the form of De Gaulle. Like him or detest him, he unquestionably had a project.”

France is the eurozone’s second-largest economy, its only nuclear power. Prolonged instability in the country reverberates far beyond its borders. France’s difficulty weakens Europe’s hand against Russia. It rattles investors and undermines the credibility of EU fiscal rules.

At home, it chips away at trust in the state itself. France’s welfare system – pensions, health care, education – is not just policy. It is identity. Each attempt to trim the structure feels like an assault on the model of solidarity that defines France.

Macron’s appointment of Lecornu will test whether the Fifth Republic can still deliver stability. He will face the same trap that consumed Bayrou: pass a budget in a parliament that cannot agree.

Gabriel Attal, a former premier from Macron’s camp, calls the cycle of collapse “an absolutely distressing spectacle” and proposes installing a political mediator to help forge a strong coalition. His warning is blunt: France cannot keep toppling governments every few months.

De Gaulle built the Republic to end the chaos of the 1950s. Now, as protesters prepare to blockade the nation, many fear even that safeguard is failing. France now waits for proof that order can still rise from drift and collapse is not the new routine.