00:00Thanks for joining us. It's the results we were all expecting.
00:03With 364 against and 194, Prime Minister François Bayrou has been toppled, losing a crucial confidence vote.
00:11Bayrou is now set to tender his resignation early tomorrow,
00:15with President Emmanuel Macron reportedly preparing to call a new number two on in the coming days.
00:22But Bayrou, a veteran's entrance, had framed his self-imposed ballots as necessary to build a consensus
00:28around what he has called an urgent fiscal crisis.
00:31Speaking earlier in the National Assembly, Bayrou said France's fiscal woes puts the country's very survival at risk.
00:38His plan to carry out 44 billion euros in cuts for the 2026 budget,
00:43including several controversial measures like scrapping two public holidays,
00:47triggered a wave of public anger and collapsing support in the Assembly.
00:52Now with Bayrou out, all eyes are on President Emmanuel Macron,
00:55who faces mounting pressure and a slate of uncertain paths forward.
00:59Well, let's bring in France 24's French political editor, Marc Perlman, who joins me now.
01:06Marc, how are the French people feeling at the moment?
01:11I mean, seeing all this stability, this can't be reassuring for them.
01:14No. Well, they're probably relieved, according to the polls, to see François Bayrou gone.
01:2080% were opposed to him, so they're probably relieved.
01:26However, at the same time, they're probably worried because it's nine months after a prime minister that lasted a few months.
01:35We already had four prime ministers since Emmanuel Macron was re-elected in 2022.
01:42We are told by the Élysée that in the next few days, in the coming days, we'll have a new prime minister.
01:49That's what the Élysée announced.
01:51So they're probably worried that France has become like an unstable parliamentary regime.
01:59Italy comes to mind, although Italy has been more stable in a few years.
02:05Or some are thinking about the Fourth Republic, the late 1950s, when there was so much instability that we came with a new republic, the Fifth Republic, and Charles de Gaulle, and so on.
02:20So they're deeply worried because they've heard, because they couldn't do anything else, all the warnings about the debts by François Bayrou,
02:30who again today came up with this mantra that the debt was paralyzing France today, was endangering France tomorrow, saying that this was immoral,
02:43that this was a slavery for France's youth, and so on.
02:47So they're hearing all the warning signs, the rating agencies coming down on France, Brussels watching, financial markets chittery, and no growth.
02:59And so they don't see any solution because they think Emmanuel Macron will again come up with a prime minister that will not be able to garner,
03:07if not a majority, if not a majority, at least not an opposing majority.
03:12They don't really see this as a solution.
03:15So they saw already the snap election that was clearly a fatal mistake by Emmanuel Macron last year.
03:23That's a possibility.
03:26Or, as Jean-Luc Mélenchon has repeated today after the vote, that he wants the president to resign.
03:34Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly said, there's no way I will resign before the end of my mandate.
03:39So there's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of concerns, because this political situation is very bad.
03:46The economic situation is not very promising.
03:50And the social situation could become dire.
03:54We're seeing calls to block, quote-unquote, the country in two days.
03:59On September 18th, there's supposed to be a day of unions walking on the street.
04:04So all the warning signs are there, and they don't see many signs of hope.
04:09So that's why there's a lot of worries now.
04:14There might be some smiles, but not really much to be happy about now.
04:20Well, Angela Diffley is also here, France 24's International Affairs Editor.
04:24Mark just mentioned that new movement that has come up now, the Bloc en 2, that's going to be taking place on Wednesday.
04:31What can we expect from that day of protest?
04:34We don't know, as the shorthander.
04:36This is a grassroots movement which emerged through social media.
04:41And that in itself is extremely worrying for the authorities.
04:45They don't know what is being planned.
04:46They have tried to infiltrate unsuccessfully.
04:50You know, it's very unclear what is going to happen.
04:52There have been a lot of comparisons with the Gilets Jaunes movement, which was back in 2018,
04:58which was very much suburban people saying, you know, the price of petrol went up,
05:04and so they were finding it difficult to get into the towns and cities to earn a living.
05:08They said ordinary people were having too many problems.
05:11In the same way as that was a grassroots movement, so is this one.
05:17And the trade union's position on this day of action, this day to block France on Wednesday,
05:23was hesitant at the beginning.
05:25Some of them have now come on board, but they were very worried.
05:28They were worried at not being involved, because the trade unions felt they had been
05:32sidelined when the Gilets Jaunes protests erupted,
05:35and they didn't want, again, to be seen as not having their finger on the pulse.
05:40Equally, they do not want to attach themselves to a movement which they do not control
05:44and which might spin quickly out of control.
05:47It began, it was an entrepreneur, a small businessman in the north of France
05:53who started off this movement, but it's already really morphed from what he started off
05:58into something that looks quite different in as far as we can see what it's about.
06:02Many of those people who appear to have embraced it are on the far left of French politics.
06:08They say they voted for the far left in the last elections.
06:11You know, what might happen, we don't know.
06:14Some of the things that are being suggested, one was for people not to use their credit
06:18guards.
06:19The idea was that that would make banks lose an enormous amount of money.
06:23It's not clear whether they would or not, and whether or not people will decide to do that.
06:27Another idea being thrown out there is that people should go to supermarkets, fill up their
06:34trolleys and then not pay.
06:36The boss of one of the big supermarkets was on the airwaves this morning saying, look,
06:41that is called theft and is saying that, you know, that simply can't happen.
06:46Supermarkets are very worried.
06:47They've asked people to deliver early.
06:49They've asked people to deliver more to their stores because they fear customers might
06:53stockpile.
06:55Some of the trade unions now have come on board, particularly the transport trade unions, some
07:00of them.
07:01People don't know what might happen and whether this will become something, a wide-scale
07:08disruption, blocking France and violent or not.
07:12They're like, you know, we know a lot of business.
07:16We know we're mm grained.
07:17We know.
07:21They've ourselves got the option now.
07:22We know for people to deliver the business.
07:24We know.
07:25They could't provide a good effect.
07:25We know .
07:26They've had the companies out there, but they might have everything as we know when
07:28we're 되고.
07:29They should maybe change status to family.
07:32Those are the things that aren't the biggest difficult for us.
07:33irgendwie until they're considering the manufacturers and also making those
07:35infinitely more difficult.
07:36They might do well.
07:38They're like, don't know о of the stone or theDoors.
07:38What do we expect?
07:39They can take it on the case of a 10th-foot cap.
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