France's legislators topple government in confidence vote
發佈日期: 2025-09-09 20:19
TVB News
Legislators toppled France's government in a confidence vote on Monday, a new crisis for Europe's second-largest economy that obliges President Emmanuel Macron to search for a fourth prime minister in 12 months.
Lawmakers voted to oust Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and his minority government over their plans to tame the ballooning national debt.
Tracey Furniss has more.
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou paid the price for what appeared to be a staggering political miscalculation, gambling that lawmakers would back his view that France must slash public spending to rein in its debts. Instead, they seized on the vote that Bayrou called, to gang up against the 74-year-old centrist who was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron last December. Ousting him 194 votes to 364.
The Associated Press reporter, Alex Turnbull said: "Francois Bayrou will hand in his resignation on Tuesday after his government lost a vote of confidence in parliament.Bayrou had called the vote himself, hoping to win backing for his plans. Instead, nearly two thirds of all lawmakers came together to bring him down.
At the heart of the fight is France's public debt. It's among the highest in Europe - equal to 114 percent of the country's economy. Bayrou warned it's submerging the nation, and pushed for tough spending cuts. But his message failed to convince."
The demise of Bayrou's short-lived government - now constitutionally obliged to submit its resignation after just under nine months in office -heralds renewed uncertainty and a risk of prolonged legislative deadlock for France as it wrestles with pressing challenges including the budget, and internationally, wars in Ukraine and Gaza as well as the shifting priorities of U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a last ditch effort to save his job before the vote, Bayrou warned that France is risking its future and influence by racking up trillions in debts pleading for belt-tightening.
President Macron's chosen replacement will operate in the same precarious environment and face the same pressing budget problems.
Under the French political system, the prime minister is appointed by the president, accountable to the parliament and is in charge of implementing domestic policy, notably economic measures.
