President Emmanuel Macron is not only the head of state of France. He also looks like he wants to be the spokesperson in all of Europe. He has tried to lead Europe to the war in Russia-Ukraine, opposed the US by supporting the Palestinian state and weighed in on the wishes of former President Donald Trump to buy Greenland. Yet critics say that he should concentrate on problems that are closer to home.
In Macron’s France there is real unrest in the parliament of the country about how the mass debt tax can be recorded. And Prime Minister François Bayrou does not become a vote for no trust on Monday, which he will probably lose. Bayrou was appointed by Macron in December last year, after three other prime ministers who resigned in 2024. In many ways, a Déjà Vu scenario where the president still appoints a prime minister is as he did in December when Michel Barnier stopped.
At the end of last month, Bayrou emphasized that France is deep in debt, despite being the second largest economy in the European Union, behind Germany. France is not only a major economy, but also an important American trading partner.
Due to the pending tax crisis, Bayrou developed a plan to reduce the tax deficit to 4.6% of GDP next year by making savings of 44 billion euros ($ 51 billion) and cutting two holidays. That would be a smaller shortage than in one of the years from 2020 to 2024.
France warns of global ‘brutalization’ in the midst of Trump Arctic dispute about Greenland
French President Emmanuel Macron gestures while on June 15, 2025 he is on the Glacier Mont Nunatarsuaq during a visit to Greenland. (Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty images)
If Bayrou loses, there are alternatives. “Macron can call a quick election or appoint a new prime minister, but that will be difficult in view of the current situation,” says Elias Haddad, senior markets Strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in London. “Bayrou is expected to lose, and all other parties have sworn to overthrow the government.”
From Gaza to Greenland, Macron breaks with Trump on global flash points
The French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou speaks during a live television interview broadcast in Paris on August 31, 2025. (Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty images)
One thing that will almost certainly not happen is a dismissal by Macron. “Most likely Macron mentions another prime minister and makes a minimal budget that will not be too scary,” says Barincou. In other words, there may be any budget reduction, but it will not be near what the current Prime Minister suggested in August.
Although it seems extremely unlikely that there will be a Snap election, the populist said National Rally (RN) that it is preparing for one and a potential list of candidates. The president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, said last week: “We can and must be ready for everything, including a return to the polls with a dissolution of the national meeting,” said a report in Reuters.
Marine Le Pen, Left, and National Rally President Jordan Bardella during a political meeting on 2 June 2024 in Paris. (AP/Thomas Padilla)
Bardella spoke for a meeting aimed at preparing the RN for parliamentary elections and said that the party had already chosen 85% of her candidates, Reuters reported.
Trump picks up the recognition of France of Palestine as a rubio, prominent republicans explode
Prime Minister François Bayrou could already get a mood without trust on Monday, while the French parliament is struggling with tackling the increasing debt crisis of the nation. (Telmo Pinto/Nurphoto)
A collapse of the French parliament apparently has been concerned about the European Central Bank, which supervises the monetary policy for the field that is known as the eurozone. The revenues on French bonds have already risen by a tenth of one percentage point, which means that the costs of borrowing are higher than in neighboring Germany.
Although France’s debt problem does not disappear quickly, it is unlikely that it weighs on the wider eurozone, says Haddad. He also notes that despite a recent decrease in demand to buy French bonds, there is little panic. “The underlying question is still good and unlikely, a destabilizing situation in the financial markets will see,” he says. “The bonds are relatively healthy.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
Part of the general problem that France is confronted with is that the West has changed more culturally, says Ben Habib, who is now preparing for registering Advance UK, a new right-wing political party in Great Britain. “The dependency culture is embedded in Europe, including the UK,” he says. In other words, too many people trust in hand -outs from the government instead of generating income through their own efforts.
In turn, that has led to slower growing economies and massive increase in government debt taxes. That includes the UK, France, Italy and other countries. “It is remarkable for me that we haven’t hit the skids yet,” says Habib.
Reuters has contributed to this report.
