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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
France fears new political crisis after PM’s confidence-vote gamble | |
By Reuters | |
Updated: | |
5:59 AM EDT, Tue August 26, 2025 | |
Source: Reuters | |
could find itself heading for another snap parliamentary election, a | |
government minister suggested on Tuesday, after opposition parties said | |
they would vote to oust Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and as French | |
markets tumbled. | |
Bayrou jolted the political establishment out of its summer slumber on | |
Monday with his unexpected move to seek a September 8 confidence vote | |
on his debt-cutting plan. | |
The country’s main opposition parties were quick to make it clear | |
that they would be voting against him and his minority government. | |
“We need a different Prime Minister and, above all, a different | |
policy,” lead Socialist lawmaker Boris Vallaud wrote on X. | |
Finance Minister Eric Lombard said the government was still hoping to | |
reach a last-minute deal with the opposition, but from the far-right to | |
the hard left, party leaders made clear that was unlikely to happen. | |
Jean-Luc Melenchon, of the hard left France Unbowed, went even further, | |
saying President Emmanuel Macron himself should leave. | |
“Emmanuel Macron must go. He is responsible for the crisis,” | |
Melenchon wrote on X. | |
Macron called a snap election in June last year which he said would | |
bring “clarity” - the very same words used by Bayrou on Monday to | |
explain why he was holding a confidence vote. But the 2024 snap | |
election only resulted in a more fragmented parliament, bringing no | |
clarity at all. | |
France’s blue chip CAC40 index was down nearly 2% in early trade on | |
Tuesday, having fallen 1.6% late on Monday. France’s 10-year bond | |
yield rose around 3 basis points in early trade to around 3.52%, its | |
highest since March. When a bond’s yield rises, its price falls. | |
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 TV that while the | |
government was still working on trying to find a compromise agreement, | |
he “could not rule out” the scenario of another costly dissolution | |
of parliament. | |
Macron, who is the only person who can dissolve parliament and launch | |
fresh legislative elections, has yet to comment on Bayrou’s move, | |
although Bayrou’s entourage said on Monday that Macron had signed off | |
on the plan. | |
Asked about comments by other politicians that the International | |
Monetary Fund may have to intervene if France doesn’t get its | |
finances in order, Lombard replied: “This is a risk that is in front | |
of us.” | |
“It is a risk that we would like to avoid, and one which we should | |
avoid, but I cannot tell you that this risk does not exist,” he | |
added. | |
The IMF usually only offers financial support to countries that find | |
themselves shut out of financial markets due to dire budget crises, and | |
even then only on condition of making serious reforms. France is very | |
far from being in that situation. | |
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