French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou asked President Emmanuel Macron to convene an extraordinary parliamentary session on September 8 to seek a vote of confidence before budget debates begin. The minority government plans to save almost €44 billion ($51 billion) to reduce the deficit from 5.8% of GDP to 4.6% by 2026, still above the EU limit of 3%. Proposals include scrapping two public holidays and other austerity measures that face strong opposition from politicians and the public. Failure would force Macron to appoint a new prime minister, echoing the Third Republic's budget-driven turnover in the 1930s.
With a calm voice and serious expression, Bayrou announced that he had asked President Emmanuel Macron to convene an extraordinary session of parliament on September 8, to call a vote of confidence before it even begins to debate the budget. Bayrou hoped that this shock decision would help secure backing for his planned austerity budget, which faces strong opposition from both politicians and ordinary people.
Bayrou isn't just risking his own career by calling a vote of confidence. If he fails, President Macron will have to replace him as head of government, which will mean naming his fifth prime minister after Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal and Michel Barnier in just over 600 days. This is the kind of turnover that France associates with the crisis years of the Third Republic, a system of government between 1870 and 1940.
During the Third Republic, in the early 1930s, France was reeling from the fallout of the Great Depression. Governments came and went; prime ministers were replaced on a monthly basis. The Third Republic got through six of them in 193233 and that record made its political incapacity glaringly obvious. The reasons for their failure was almost always the same: disagreement about the budget, the prerogative of parliament. Every attempt to balance the books was scuppered by the delegates' opposition.
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