The public response to France's political crisis is overwhelmingly negative, marked by widespread frustration over President Macron's leadership and discontent with the government's disconnect from citizen concerns. Many voices call for significant political reform, greater accountability, and express fear of far-right dominance, alongside skepticism about the government's effectiveness amid deep socio-political and economic challenges.

President Emmanuel Macron

French Government

Far-right political parties

It's honestly infuriating to watch. The Prime Minister is doing the absolute bare minimum, he's just asking parliament to admit that 2+2=4 and that debt is, in fact, real. For this act of basic sanity, he's about to get torpedoed. It shows you just how deep the rot is in French politics.

You've got this toxic pincer movement from the populist fantasists, Le Pen on one side and Mélenchon on the other. They're both selling the same snake oil: that the laws of economics are just a suggestion you can ignore if you feel like it. They are literally willing to burn the country's financial house down, to play chicken with a sovereign debt crisis, all for a shot at power. it's a breathtaking act of national self-harm.

Particular_Tennis337

&gt;For the third time in little over a year, France looks likely to lose its prime minister. François Bayrou’s decision on August 25th to put his government’s survival on the line with a vote of confidence on September 8th was as unexpected as it was risky. The centrist prime minister runs a minority government in a deadlocked parliament split into three blocs, two of which are set on bringing him down. The 74-year-old Mr Bayrou will need to muster uncommon political skill if he is to keep the job he secured less than nine months ago after his predecessor, Michel Barnier, was toppled. Markets are already nervous as France heads into yet another spell of political instability. After Mr Bayrou’s announcement the yield spread on French ten-year bonds compared to German bunds, the euro zone’s benchmark, widened from 0.69 to 0.73.

&gt;

&gt;The end of the summer was always going to be a tricky political moment for Mr Bayrou. He has been putting together a budget for 2026, which includes the promise of €44bn ($51bn) in savings in order to try to curb the budget deficit from 5.4% of GDP in 2025 to a still-too-high 4.6% in 2026. These include plenty of unpopular measures, notably the abolition of two of the country’s 11 public holidays. Time spent on the beach this summer seems only to have hardened popular hostility to losing those extra days off. Fully 84% told a poll in August that they were against the idea, up from 73% in July.

&gt;

&gt;Rather than wait to put his unpopular budget to parliament, however, Mr Bayrou has gone for a pre-emptive strike. “Our country is in danger”, he declared in a grave and martial tone on the afternoon of August 25th. France’s public debt, at 114% of GDP, is lower only than that of Greece and Italy within the EU. “Dependence on debt has become chronic,” Mr Bayrou went on. France this year will spend more on servicing debt (€66bn) than on either education or defence, he noted. Mr Bayrou, who campaigned for the French presidency in 2012 on a crusade against the country’s addiction to public spending, urged parliament to take seriously the risk of doing nothing. The vote of confidence next month, he said, would not concern the budget measures themselves, but a simple question: does parliament agree that there is a “national emergency” that requires fixing the public finances?

Standard_Ad7704

It's all so depressing and it is French voters and the French media's fault

tripletruble

Just genuinely curious, what is the near-term plan here?

If the most anticipated scenario happens, Bayrou gets ousted and Macron appoints a new prime minister. Is that prime minister not likely to get rejected as well? If the left takes up the stance that the right has, and calls for new elections instead of approving new PMs, they could easily force Macron’s hand here. The only option looks like a candidate that’d appeal to the main center left parties, and even then that’s stretching it.

What other options are there? Last minute deal with the socialists that backs Bayrou if he cuts down some of his spending cuts? Socialists plummet in popularity and Melenchon absorbs the left’s support?

I just don’t see anything happening here in any hypothetical that’s good for France’s trajectory over the next 1-2 years, I can see why bonds are rising.

DiscussionJohnThread

I unironically think France is cooked, I don't see any way out of this situation for them. Macron was the only one seeking fiscal reform, he has had four prime ministers who have failed to keep the confidentiality of the French legislature, and NFP/RN/the entire French population are living in fantasy land when it comes to the fiscal situation. Cling on to power, and only make the people more angry. Hold an election now, and hand triumph to the same people who will aggravate the situation even further. If a fiscal crisis does happen, what's going to happen to the Euro? 💀

Desperate_Wear_1866

I'm genuinely wondering if a few sovereign debt crises might be long-term good for European countries. It would provide the political cover to make the long-term structural changes to things like pensions and health, especially in France and Britain.

A lot of short term pain, but if it means they can reform pensions it will solve a lot of problems. Of course, both countries will be under a hard right government in a couple of years, so that will add more chaos.

Unterfahrt

Koszulium

Papa_Palpatine99

Maybe we should just stop giving 20% of our budget to pensioners then. 

For fuck's sake there are so many pensioners who don't need the money. The average pensioner's level of income is above that of the average worker. We're one of just two countries where that's the case.

The generations working now already know that it's impossible for us to retire that young or get that much when it's our turn, might as well make it fair now and balance the budget then have the rug pulled out from under us later.

But we won't, because the country will lose its shit.

PlantTreesBuildHomes

My expectation is that Bayrou will get shit on and kicked out and then in 25 years everyone will view him as a tragic, principled character cast aside by an inept, dysfunctional political system.

TactileTom

Macron should just resign . France should have presidential and legislative election so they can get a stable government that then can choose how to deal with the problems France is facing . He bet his country’s future in the legislative elections after the European elections . He lost . It’s time for him to allow France to move on .

oywiththepoodles96

Macarrón has nobody to blame but himself. The Far Right didn't win thanks to the alliance with the left movement. He didn't waste a minute to throw them under the bus after the counting was done.

PirrotheCimmerian

What are the chances Macron pulls the plug again and calls another election?

hennelly14

Used-Future3414

I feel like I already read the same FT article several times over the past 20 years...

rafalemurian

Sitting in Paris bracing for the next French political crisis, I found a strangely fascinating table from the IMF. It gives government spending as a percentage of GDP for dozens of countries. Clustered at the top are several isolated microstates: Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Dominica and Micronesia. Counting only countries with populations over 150,000, the biggest spender was Ukraine, at 74 per cent of GDP. Fair enough — it’s fighting an invasion. But next in the table, at a stonking 57 per cent, is a country at peace (except with itself): France.

That number underlies the crisis. With France’s budget deficit hitting 5.8 per cent of GDP, François Bayrou, the fourth prime minister since 2024, wants to cut €44bn from the ever-expanding budget. Since parliament won’t let him, he’ll probably lose a vote of confidence on Monday. Then on Wednesday, protests and strikes aim to “block” an already blocked country. Why can’t France spend less? And where might this end?

Contrary to popular belief, France’s state wasn’t always massive. At liberation in 1944, many people lived on farms without even rudimentary public services, such as electricity or running water. Pensions used to be ungenerous. In 1970, the effective average age of retirement was 68, exactly the age at which the average French man (in an era when most workers were men) died. In 1995, six governments of developed countries were higher spenders than France.

    Macron’s remark after taking office that France was not ‘reformable’ appears correct

Then, when the euro arrived in 2002, French politicians calculated that with the European Central Bank printing their money, they could spend with impunity. The prodigality peaked in pensions: French retirement now averages 25 years, about the longest in human history. But spending is also relatively high on health, infrastructure in cities (though not in France’s vast countryside), and — oddly for an obsessively over-centralised country — on local civil servants. Meanwhile, France’s private sector has borrowed merrily too.

French politics is personalised around the figure of the president. After the former Rothschild banker Emmanuel Macron got the job in 2017, the word “neoliberal” pervaded French discourse. France is now routinely described as a “neoliberal wasteland”, its state supposedly slashed by Thatcherites. In the new post-truth era, other absurd beliefs went mainstream, such as the notion that France was uniquely cursed (as witness world-leading French pessimism in opinion polls) or that it was heading for racial civil war.

Then, from 2022, global interest rates rose, punishing spendthrift states. France’s 10-year borrowing costs have jumped to 3.5 per cent, similar to Greece and Italy, albeit below the US and UK. In fact, as so often, France’s dysfunction mirrors Britain’s. One reason the two states have been co-operating on defence is that neither has the money to act alone. It’s like two small companies merging to survive in international markets.

Because France overspends domestically, it can’t afford to help Europe resist Vladimir Putin. Its defence budget is still only 2 per cent of GDP. I recently visited a weapons factory that makes surveillance drones. I imagined it was producing thousands, but was told, “The French military has 14.”

How to cut other spending? Bayrou’s people are trying to persuade opposition parties by trumpeting the improbable claim that the IMF might intervene. The opposition agrees that the debt should fall, but not on any actual measures to make that happen. That’s partly because both main opposition parties are economically far left: Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise, and Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, which is far right only on immigration and culture wars. Both parties aspire to drive the deficit even higher by lowering the retirement age back from 64 (to which Macron raised it) to 62 or even 60.

Cutting spending would require compromise. But that’s now unthinkable in French politics. Macron’s remark after taking office that France was “not reformable” appears correct. The likelihood is continued stasis, with French debt climbing further from today’s 116 per cent of GDP. Debt-servicing costs, already the budget’s single biggest item at an expected €66bn this year, have begun crowding out other spending. Further downgrades by rating agencies would push up borrowing costs.

The traditional forecast is that the far right will win the presidency in 2027, possibly precipitating a debt crisis. I’ve always doubted that: France’s political saving grace is that the far left and notional far right still loathe each other. But an accident is becoming ever more likely.

JackRogers3

Well 25% of our budget goes to pensions. And no one want to touch pensioners, so…

D4zb0g

The problem is the same in many countries it's also a simple fix. 

Unfortunately it's impossible to enact in almost any country. Pension age is too low and funded from general taxation in most. I'm curious to see the effect if France raised the pension age to even 66, what is life expectancy in France now 82? 

I don't believe that people should work until the day they drop or that they shouldn't retire in condition to enjoy it however it has to be affordable for the state.

I'm in favour of a more individualised retirement system. Have you worked physical labour for 40 years? Then yes you should be able to retire in your early 60s. My own job is desk based but it is stressful I hope when I reach my 60s I can reduce hours or move into a less taxing position for a few years but I could do my job with arthritis a bricklayer or a nurse can't.

ClearHeart_FullLiver

Given health advances, a retirement age of 60-62 is ridiculously low, and puts an unfair burden on younger workers. The Dutch and Danish have understood this and adjusted accordingly. Reality will hit French voters one way or another whether they like it or not.

FuzzyYellow9046

Union_Biker

As always, those neoliberal media never mentionning the generous 215 B€ gifted without any conditions to french private companies ...

tapyr

The idealistic young leftie in me thinks that perhaps everyone should be more like the French, raising the middle finger to the people who want everyone to work more and longer for a miniscule share of the national wealth pie, and cultivating a general attitude of "I owe you nothing" to those in power.

And then my middle-aged current self kicks in again and tells me that unless everyone does that, you will lose in the global competition and you will probably end up poorer and less happy in the long run.

Life sucks, I guess. 

No wait, let's end it a bit more positively.

Life is what you make of it. 😅

Fastluck83

Another important point is that your average French is a moron. We’re crushed by the welfare state, but your average French doesn’t want to touch it, because he hopes to be of it from it at some point, while the next generation will be crushed. 

About 40% of the population works, when in other developed European nation are between 50-60 (and sometime more), and only half of those pay income taxes. 

Most of our public services are worsening, the only silver lining being that our teachers are bad, and your average French doesn’t speak English, so he can’t run away to another country :)

redditedOnion

[deleted]

"You know what Europe needs? More austerity?"

"But we tried that around the 2008 crisis, it sucked and it only led to disillusionment with the system and support for extremism.

"Shut up, peasant, your regulations are stopping your betters from improving things for everyone (who matters)".

Back when Obama met Merkel, he told her the insistance on austerity during a crisis was a mistake, and he was right.

Also, L-o-fucking-L at "Its defence budget is still only 2 per cent of GDP." For crying out loud, France was the one or like two Western countries that kept it around 2% and had the capacity to act abroad like in the Sahel. 3% has often been mentioned as the threshold at which you don't just have a defense but expect to be at war. France has been snugly in the top  10 military budgets since forever. If it can't show enough for it, it has less to do with the amount of money and more with where that money is going.

4uk4ata

The takes here are so wrong, austerity policies do not work. Since they have been implemented for decades now. For how many years has the government said that we need to reduce spending, meanwhile offering massive tax breaks to corporations and private entities while slashing public services ???
You dumbass Anglo saxons way of thinking is why the united kingdom and America is fucking all over the middle class.
This article somehow forgets the fact that France has reduce taxes for the ultra wealthy and corporations for a while, citing the fear of capital flight as their main argument(even if capital flight is a myth). They also gave massive tax breaks to the big corporations for "investment" (211 billion €) and no one knows where that money actually went. 
So garbage opinion article from the UK through and through. Maybe that's why if you remove London from the UK it actually is a third world country.

Money_Outside1209

Gosh, this paper is full of disinformation.

&gt;That number underlies the crisis.

Not at all, a lot of private spends on other countries are made by the state in France. If you compare with countries with the same model, the difference are slight (belgium 55%, Italy 54%). Health care and pensions are inside french debt, now add those values to the debt of other countries and it will explode.

&gt;French retirement now averages 25 years, about the longest in human history.

Yeah, that is why laws already changed and younger generations will leave later to retirement.

People didn't accepted the last tries to change the law because **the propositions was unfair**. It was making the poorest categories working longer when they are the ones who die first and it wasn't changing anything for the upper classes. The gov refused to adjust the age for retirement depending of the arduousness of the jobs and that is what people was asking, making the effort fair.

&gt;Because France overspends domestically, it can’t afford to help Europe resist Vladimir Putin.

France already has one the of the highest spending (%) of European countries. Why the phoque it's france's responsibility ? Germany, first economy of the EU was spending way lesser than France. By the way, the german's strategy was to buy gaz to Russia and depends on USA for defense when France was calling for a total energies's independence and a "europe of the defense". But yeah, france responsibility bro'...

&gt;The opposition agrees that the debt should fall, but not on any actual measures to make that happen.

That is such a lie, the opposition is refusing shitty measures that cut money for the working class and keep giving money to the rich. The socialist even plan to propose a different plan to cut the debt up to 21bn but in a fair way ([the plan](https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2025/08/30/le-ps-devoile-son-budget-alternatif-suspension-de-la-reforme-des-retraites-taxe-sur-les-patrimoines-baisse-de-la-csg-et-relance-economique_6637534_823448.html)).

&gt;Cutting spending would require compromise. But that’s now unthinkable in French politics.

I bet the author is opened about other solutions that cutting the spending for working classes, right ? Starting a discussion by saying there is only one solution is not making compromise.

By the way, that is the right and only the right who made the debt sky rocking by cutting taxes on the rich people and giving away a lot of money to big companies (that finished on the pockets of owners).

Mozaiic

A deficit of 5 % is not a problem if you reduce it gradually and you have some economic growth to compensate. The issue here is that French politicians made a mess, and obviously scared investors.

BuddyNo5007

Analysis in the article is not correct. Spending did not rise in percent of the GDP, it is tax cuts from the Macron government, especially on CAC40 companies and ultra high incomes that raised the debt so much. The country is stuck because he doesn't want to consider the option to raise these taxes again and prefers to have the 80% of the french population pay for debt he created in his 7 years of presidency.

lapaterne

&gt;Then, when the euro arrived in 2002, French politicians calculated that with the European Central Bank printing their money, they could spend with impunity.

That doesn't check out.

https://www.worldeconomics.com/GrossDomesticProduct/debt-to-gdp-ratio/France.aspx

From 1995 to 2008 (the banking crisis) it's pretty much the most stable period on the graph, which starts in 1980.

It does not contradict that there's a persistent trend of increasing debt, but that that it started because of the Euro.

silverionmox

&gt;French politics is personalised around the figure of the president. After the former Rothschild banker Emmanuel Macron got the job in 2017, the word “neoliberal” pervaded French discourse. France is now routinely described as a “neoliberal wasteland”, its state supposedly slashed by Thatcherites. In the new post-truth era, other absurd beliefs went mainstream, such as the notion that France was uniquely cursed (as witness world-leading French pessimism in opinion polls) or that it was heading for racial civil war.

F this, I live here and I'm not less educated or a worse observer of French politics and economics than this Simon Kuper. Don't listen topeople who never lived on minimal wage or wellfare when they say anything about it. I chose to quote this because IT IS fake news but the whole article is neo-lib US propaganda. This guy wants that France and the whole world follow the US model.

99ShahedOfBakuOfNine

Plate tectonics means it takes hundreds of thousands of years to effect real change

Remmick2326

France needs to win glorious battles once more!

someguytwo

Most generous pension system in the world  
Not only early retirement but a good payout too

Far-Reaction-1980

Heavy_Grapefruit9885

All states are failed. Some, more failed than others.

jalanajak

The government spends spends spends, has to borrow more and the debt cycle keeps turning and importing unskilled migrants that don’t work hasn’t turned the GDP around like they thought it would, it in fact drives down wages and increases inflation and everyone suffers as a result. Did I get it about right?

Hairy_Addendum7789

All I ever see happening in France, when there's talk of reforms and cuts, are French people massing together to protest and riot.
While many other countries are able to make changes France just seems to pull itself further down into the shit. 
Why is that?

henkdevries365

France is stuck because this country is governed by quite small in size, extremely cynical and quite stupid, irresponsible elite taking turns in "governing" state and commercial entities. You have "leaders" who studied "history"  etc. in SciPo governing Alcatels (and running them into ground) with no consequences.

She is not alone, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy are not much better.

P.S. Can some frenchy explain the difference between ENA and INSP? maybe I am blind but I don't see any practical difference.

dondarreb

Came to read comments blaming the working class.

Wasn't disappointed.

Austerity won't work.  The issue is corporate tax cuts.  The working class and governments are all broke and deep in debt while corporate treasuries are overflowing with idle money.

Jasonstackhouse111

90% percent for the higher tax bracket as it used to be in America in the 40s and 50s.


Eliminate tax loopholes for companies so they pay their fair share.


Then we can start talking about retirement age of the working and middle classes.


It sick that there are individuals that can accrue billions.

redditor1235711

I'm not worried. Ever since king Philip the Fair,  we have always found a way or another to ~~deal with our creditors,~~ I mean ~~pillage  our neighbours,~~ erm...., ~~exploit colonies,~~  ahem... I mean, solve our deficit.

TremendousVarmint

BadBadGrades

French government faces risk of collapse?

Soft-Ingenuity2262

It's been the same damn headline since 1789

LAiglon144

France basically runs on these kinds of high drama disputes. They’re a national sport. It’ll be fine!

Embarrassed-Fault973

plutoisap

AkaAtarion

**European stock markets retreated on Tuesday morning, pulled down by French equities as traders monitored the potential for a no confidence vote in the government next month.**

France’s CAC 40 index plummeted more than 2% in early deals before paring losses to around 1.75%. The country’s three main opposition parties [said they would not back a surprise confidence vote](https://www.reuters.com/world/french-government-risks-collapse-with-budget-confidence-vote-september-2025-08-25/) called by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Monday for Sept. 8 over his budget plans.

Bayrou argues around 44 billion euros ($51 billion) in budget cuts are needed to reduce the French deficit, which totaled 5.8% of GDP in 2024, with his proposals including freezing welfare and pension spending, as well as tax brackets, at 2025 levels.

Erik Nelson, head of G10 FX strategy at Wells Fargo, called the outlook for French assets “not great” — but said the outcome for Bayrou’s government was not a foregone conclusion.

“I think part of the issue here is that European equities, the euro itself, have been a very popular momentum trade throughout the year. What we’re seeing in the last couple of days has been a little bit of unwind.”

“I don’t know that Bayrou is definitely out. There’s still some uncertainty there. He’s got a lot of things he can offer the opposition,” Nelson continued, including that the French minister could back away from a contentious proposal to cut two public holidays.

“They’re walking a very fine line here, and ... given where market positioning is in European assets, there’s a lot of risks.”

# Fed drama

Broader European markets were also lower as global investors monitored U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest attempted intervention in the running of the Federal Reserve.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX were both down by around 0.5%.

Trump’s announcement on social media that he had fired [Federal Reserve](https://www.cnbc.com/federal-reserve/) Board Governor [Lisa Cook](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/21/trump-powell-cook-fed-mortgage-fraud.html) drove [Asia-Pacific markets](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/26/asia-stock-markets-today-live-updates-nikkei-225-asx-200-kospi-hang-seng-csi-300-sensex-nifty-50.html) and [U.S. futures](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/25/stock-market-today-live-updates.html) lower. Cook said in a Monday statement that Trump did not have the authority to remove her and that she “will not resign,” leaving a legal dispute a potential next step.

It follows months of pressure by Trump on the central bank to lower interest rates, including [repeated criticism of and threats to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/24/trump-powell-fed-visit.html).

dat_9600gt_user

European stock markets opened sharply lower on Tuesday, pulled down by French equities as traders monitored the potential for a no confidence vote in the government next month.

France’s CAC 40 index plummeted more than 2% in early deals after the country’s three main opposition parties [said they would not back a confidence vote](https://www.reuters.com/world/french-government-risks-collapse-with-budget-confidence-vote-september-2025-08-25/) called by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou for Sept. 8 over his budget plans.

Bayrou argues around 44 billion euros ($51 billion) in budget cuts are needed to reduce the French deficit, which totaled 5.8% of GDP in 2024, with his proposals including freezing welfare and pension spending, as well as tax brackets, at 2025 levels.

Erik Nelson, head of G10 FX strategy at Wells Fargo, called the outlook for French assets “not great” — but said the outcome for Bayrou’s government was not a foregone conclusion.

“I think part of the issue here is that European equities, the euro itself, have been a very popular momentum trade throughout the year. What we’re seeing in the last couple of days has been a little bit of unwind.”

“I don’t know that Bayrou is definitely out. There’s still some uncertainty there. He’s got a lot of things he can offer the opposition,” Nelson continued, including that the French minister could back away from a contentious proposal to cut two public holidays.

“They’re walking a very fine line here, and as I mentioned earlier, given where market positioning in European assets, there’s a lot of risks.”

European stock futures were already pointing lower as global investors monitored U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest attempted intervention in the running of the Federal Reserve.

krazydude22

To put things into perspective, France spends about 666 billion euros on [healthcare](https://pharmaboardroom.com/articles/frances-healthcare-budget-passes-but-system-remains-in-critical-condition/) or about 23% of GDP and a further 410 billion euros or about [14% of GDP](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-lawmakers-weigh-political-risk-curbing-boomers-costly-pensions-2024-10-09/) on pension. The military budget by comparison is about [60 billion euros](https://breakingdefense.com/2025/07/france-to-raise-military-spending-to-75b-in-2027-three-years-earlier-than-planned/) or 2% of GDP.

TheoryOfDevolution

The unawareness in the comments of how bad things actually are in France here is astounding

'usual drama' 'France will survive' 'oh its just September'

No it's not business as usual, far from it

France has been in a deep political crisis since June/July 2024, and more recently also a serious budget crisis to make it worse

What's looming is the possibility of the right+far-right achieving majority and form a government

This would be the start of a France turning its back on the EU and do everything to disrupt it, a la Orban but with immensely more weight and dire consequences. Also giving up support to Ukraine, and becoming nice and lenient with Russia and Trump

After losing the UK, the EU would then lose France, so Germany would be the last remaining major pillar of the Union

This would likely mark the beginning of the end for the EU. Exactly what Russia, China, and the USA want

Russia's (and USA's) massive propaganda campaigns and support to far-right (even far-left) movements within France and Germany have been insanely intense for years and increasing, for a purpose that couldn't be more obvious

On the side of this, the movement planned for the 10th of September is not the average type, it's sprung out of nowhere, or rather social media 'accounts' and influencers, rather than Unions and political parties who for some decided to join but did not initiate it

\-&gt; it's the same pattern as the Yellow ~~Jackets~~ Vests movement, which was proven largely triggered by outside influence and had clear involvement of Russia in the shadows. even now several unions and political leaders can't tell who is behind the movement nor what the actual claims are, meaning the primary purpose is disruption for disruption

The goal is to pressure the government and trigger new flash elections, this time quite likely to bring the far-right alliance to power

Social media and Reddit in recent weeks have been flooded with influencing accounts to support that purpose masquerading candidly as a legit social movement

But the suspicions the movement is instrumentalized (ed: hijacked) are serious

nb: vocabulary edits

swiwwcheese

To be honest, the current government is unpopular but it's doing what it should

To balance the budget you need higher taxes on the rich AND spending cuts

This is what the new budget is about, letting inflation get more and more upper class people into the highest bracket, thus raising taxes on the rich, plus spending cuts

Should the government put more emphasis on more tax hikes? On more spending cuts? That's a matter of opinion

But the overall strategy of doing both of the necessary things is GOOOD

ale_93113

xExerionx

Bobob_UwU

TBH germany was excited about it's new super stable super able government.

And so far they only found austerity for everything, a way to hamfistedly get fresh money to prevent the collapse of our pension system before 2029 and within the year 100.000 well paying industry jobs have been silently cut by offering the people who had them a severance package and earlier retirement.

QuarkVsOdo

Collapse sounds like a strong word. I every time I hear that word about a European government, it usually refers to a coalition falling apart. 

It’s as if the maga republicans and the congressional republicans decided not to work together anymore. We wouldn’t call it a collapse of government, we’d just call it the collapse of a certain political party coalition.

But collapse gets more clicks I guess

Im French and I did notice any change. Just a normal day here.

Albrecht_Entrati

Meanwhile our current government is one month short of becoming the third longest serving government in history. 

How tables turn. 

I am both amused and confused. Not used to being on the other side of things and find it very destabilising. 

Please go back to the natural course of things where we Italians are the messy, unstable ones and France and Germany have an idea of what they do lol

Socmel_

Macron placed Bayrou as Prime Minister against the will of the people and the popular vote. It is not illegal: but it should have been.

Thus the entire government is illegitimate.

What did Bayrou do with his illegitimate power? Massive tax cuts to the ultra wealthy. 

MechanicSuspicious38

Salt_Respect7159

Better_Ad898

Someone take that Macron apology form meme and fill it with crayon squiggles.

-The_Blazer-

Guipel_

Why is the thumbnail showing what looks to be a photo of Milan?

are_wethere_yet

Which stock slid ? Cac40 is stagnant. FR40 too.

Is it just straight up disinformation or what am I missing?

Edit : it did go down during last week but nothing out of the ordinary when you look the progression through 6 months or a year

starloow

Is it good time to invest in French stock?

friend56

Time for Trappier to take over.

He is already the unofficial foreign, economy and defence minister of France.

Generic_Person_3833

The dynamics in European politics are so hard to comprehend as a foreigner (us)…it’s like everything is fine and then the government might collapse or something.  Anyway, I hope for the best…regardless of petty differences the world needs the western democracies to be strong and ascendant or the void will be filled by Xi.

Mammoth_Professor833

IamHumanAndINeed

Politico seems to doomposting even more than usual. If that is even possible.

isupposethiswillwork

I can't see the French state being able to support its strategic and military goals without serious cuts to the social safety nets and increasing retirement age further. Pensions alone account for 15% of GDP with [social spending as a whole accounting for 35% of GDP](https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/publications-en-anglais/250203_DD_socialprotection_2023). Currently military spending is 2%.

Save them the shame, honestly. 

Europe past Poland can be taken within a week by any real game armed force.

EmileTheDevil9711

maybe if those nepo babies in the governments were competent, we wouldn't be in this situation

Connect-Idea-1944

Could have written this title about 30s france

Agatus-Daemon

Feuershark

Ecstatic-Guava3243

According to the article, the French have been living with an unstable government and the risk of another election.
Apparently, this is not a catastrophe, but rather an element of the political system.

Any-Original-6113

The elections will continue until morale improves.

Known_Week_158

In a way, it's a problem all of the E3 are facing right this moment. Spiralling social spending with high borrowing costs in a time when higher defence spending is urgently needed. 

At least Germany has less than 100% debt to GDP ratio, us in the UK and France are in some pretty deep shit.

sisali

Surprise surprise no politician want to balance the budget.

ballthyrm

Social spending as % of GDP has to come back to what it was just 10 years ago (or even better, 20 years ago but everyone remember how Jospin’s socialist government was hell on earth for the working class /s). Otherwise the French are living beyond their means.

The boomer electorate has to start using their wealth to finance their retirement. If they wanted to enjoy higher pensions they should have made more working-age kids. They may have used their freedom at the fullest, it’s time to pay for the consequences of such freedom.

It might be unjust at the individual level but if individuals are not capable of miracles why would a government, a collection of individuals, be any different?

It applies to most other European countries but most of us took the decisions that had to be taken.

Reggio_Calabria

moule_a_cake

44bn Euro is nothing compared with Rachel Reeves's  61bn Pounds black hole. She is still siting comfortably on her throne dishing oit misery to the middle class, the pensioners and the market.

TeddyBoyce

It looks to be a case of "You can't remove me, I'm leaving." It's two days before the already planned left-wing manifestations,  the budget wouldn't have had any chance to pass anyway, and he probably the most impopular PM of the Vth Republic.

I don't think even he thinks he can win this vote (even considering he's pretty dumb) :

- The alliance with the religious right (through Retailleau) plus the economic reforms that put more strain on income from work than on income from capital is antagonizing the left.

- The far-right isn't happy with the pro-Ukraine stance, the immigration policy, the energy policy, ... Voting for confidence would be difficult to justify to their base. We could argue that the RN would vote for confidence to avoid new legislative elections (which Macron would probably call in case of no confidence) which would mean the far-right leader Marine Le Pen would lose her seat (she is ineligible because of embezzlement). However, her party would probably win a lot (unfortunately).

TrueRignak

I don't understand why risk it with the confidence vote if you are in a minority government?

In Spain PSOE knows they are also in a minority government, so they refuse to take any chances, and while I may find that scummy, it's what keeps them in power. That is not really a political master play it seems like common sense to me.

Edit: I'm also lol'ing are reading how not passing the budget is creating so much instability, we are still using 2023's budget and as with the confidence vote, PSOE knows they would lose any vote so instead of risking it they just extend the last year's one. Why can't the french PM do this?

mods4mods

France is experiencing a significant political crisis following Prime Minister Francois Bayrou's ousting in a confidence vote after just nine months in office, amidst social unrest and economic dissatisfaction.

Political Crisis in France

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