France’s National Assembly has voted to force Prime Minister François Bayrou to resign, forcing a fourth change in government in 20 months. Bayrou had called for the vote last month after failing to gather enough support to pass a budget proposal intended to reduce France’s steep deficit.
Mabel Berezin, Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in sociology and an expert on international populism, says the writing was on the wall for the no confidence vote.
“All of this instability we’re seeing can be traced back to President Macron’s decision to call snap elections back in 2024 and dissolve the National Assembly. This was at the same time the National Rally, France’s right-wing party, had just dominated the European Parliament elections. Macron should have anticipated the political instability that would cause in France," said Berezin, director of the Institute for European Studies at the Einaudi Center for International Studies.
“First of all, he practically gave the 2027, presidential elections to the National Rally. Second, when he dissolved the National Assembly, he was never able to get the coalition he needed to keep a stable assembly.
“The parties are now calling for new elections and asking for Macron to resign. So basically, it should not have been difficult in June 2024 to predict the political instability that would result from those snap elections. And this is all on Macron. He did it. Although I don’t know if anyone would have predicted the level of instability that has occurred.”
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