French Crisis Is a Swan Song for the Macron Era

Francois Bayrou has fallen, to nobody’s surprise. France’s fourth prime minister in two years failed to break the logjam of a parliament dominated by extremes where no majority exists and where passing a budget is a labor of Hercules. Whoever President Emmanuel Macron picks to be the fifth will face the same obstacles, only with the added pressure of social unrest and jittery markets worried about deteriorating public finances. It’s a swan song for the Macron era before something more unstable hits.

Macron has a few options at this juncture, but the most likely is to spin the roulette wheel of a new government once again. The now-familiar sight of a long list of “Macron-compatible” politicians is already doing the rounds: Center-right stalwarts Xavier Bertrand or Sebastien Lecornu, or more left-leaning ones like Eric Lombard or Bernard Cazeneuve. Their task, like Bayrou’s, will be to square the circle of a fractious parliament and pass a budget in the coming months.