Solution to France's woes is hiding in plain sight

The French government's fall was entirely avoidable.

- Harrison Stetler

PARIS — He bet the House and lost. In calling the confidence vote that brought down his government on Monday, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou of France has plunged the country into turmoil.

He's now the second prime minister evicted from power since last autumn, when President Emmanuel Macron tapped a minority coalition of centrists and conservatives after the inconclusive snap elections in the summer of 2024. Unaccustomed to paralysis of this kind, France is once again without a government.

The country can ill afford such uncertainty. Faced with a budget deficit of over 5 per cent of gross domestic product, France is in dire need of flexible leadership.

A self-proclaimed arbiter of fiscal responsibility, Mr Bayrou proposed a 2026 budget that would achieve over €40 billion (S$60 billion) in savings, largely at the expense of the working and middle classes.

He called the confidence vote in order to strong-arm Parliament into accepting it. The opposition parties, from the left and the far right, voted to unseat him instead.

This showdown was entirely avoidable. In fact, a solution to France's fiscal and political stalemate has been hiding in plain sight: a tax on the ultra-wealthy.

Far from a pie in the sky, a proposal along those lines was approved by the Lower House of Parliament in 2025. But the government and its allies, betraying their rigid approach to economic policy, scuttled it. The cost of that decision is the chaos to come.

Mr Bayrou's defeat was pretty much a foregone conclusion. In the absence of an agreement on his terms, he seemingly hopes to win the blame game that's rapidly becoming the main arena of France's fractious politics.