President Emmanuel Macron will accept the resignation of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Tuesday after his government was ejected in a confidence vote, with the French leader rushing to find a successor and stave off a new political crisis.
On Monday, Bayrou suffered a crushing loss in a confidence vote he had himself called, plunging France into fresh uncertainty and leaving Macron with the task of finding the seventh premier of his mandate.
The French presidency said in a statement that Macron “took note” of the outcome and said he would name a new premier “in the next days”, ending any remaining speculation that the president could instead call snap elections.
Macron will meet Bayrou on Tuesday “to accept the resignation of his government”, it added.
Precisely when the new premier could be named remains unclear, with a source close to Macron saying an appointment as early as Tuesday was possible and a presidential address also not ruled out.
Bayrou had blindsided even his allies by calling a confidence vote to end a lengthy standoff over his austerity budget, which foresaw almost 44 billion euros ($52 billion) of cost savings to reduce France’s debt pile.
In the vote in the National Assembly, 364 deputies voted that they had no confidence in the government while just 194 gave it their confidence. “In line with article 50 of the constitution, the prime minister must submit the resignation of his government,” said speaker Yael Braun-Pivet.
Bayrou was the sixth prime minister under Macron since his 2017 election but the fifth since 2022.