After the fall of the Bayrou government, Emmanuel Macron has “few acceptable options”

The fall of the Bayrou government has been commented on as far away as the United States. The departure of its prime minister leaves Emmanuel Macron with “few acceptable options,” CNN points out. This assessment is shared by other American media outlets. The Wall Street Journal , the Washington Post , and the New York Times all use the term “worsening” to define the consequences of the looming crisis. For the WSJ, it is the “fiscal and political mess” that is worsening. For the Post, it is “Macron’s problems,” and for the Times, it is the country’s “paralysis.”

“What’s next?” asks CNN . The 24-hour news channel cites the names of Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces, and Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Justice, as potential successors, while warning that their appointment would have the air of a “poisoned chalice.” A prime minister from another party? “It’s an option, in theory, but a candidate from the right would be blocked by the left and vice versa,” replies CNN . A resignation of the President of the Republic? He has ruled it out, insists the Atlanta-based media outlet. New elections? They would “certainly strengthen” the National Rally and “further fracture the French parliament.”

One thing is certain, however, the channel concludes: "the instability in Paris is a gift to both" Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, "who share a common pleasure in mocking Europe's weaknesses."

The fact that Emmanuel Macron must replace a second government in less than a year “gives a sense of the extent to which France is stuck in a spiral of political dysfunction that is draining public finances,” observes the Wall Street Journal . The deadlock “is fueling public frustration and giving extreme parties an opportunity to argue that the time has come for voters to turn the page after decades of rule by traditional leaders.” So, the Post points out, France, the European Union’s second-largest economy and the only EU power with a nuclear army, is “shrouded in perilous uncertainty.”

Because the country faces “a political vacuum devoid of plausible answers,” worries the New York Times . The “pressure” is mounting on Emmanuel Macron, a “beleaguered president whose approval rating has fallen to 15 percent.” The newspaper believes that choosing a Renaissance minister would be “like putting a Band-Aid on a wooden leg.” The “alarming state of drift” described by the newspaper leads it to say that “France has become virtually ungovernable.” Without concession, the Times speaks of a “country without a tradition of compromise and coalition building like those found in Italy or Germany.” It assures that the next leader, regardless of his political stripe, will have to overcome “the dilemma of demanding changes that France has consistently refused, unlike European countries, which, from Scandinavia to Germany, have been able to restrict their welfare state.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, Le Soir en rightly calls for the responsibility of the French political class. “Agreeing is no longer an option. It is a duty,” proclaims a stern post. “Observing this Monday at the Palais Bourbon the umpteenth distressing spectacle of an Assembly incapable of respect, given over to violent invectives and sterile posturing, one came to ask oneself: who really understood the gravity of the situation?”, deplores the daily. “If the formation of a government of national unity seems impossible, a consensus is necessary at the very least to adopt a budget. The time is grave. The time for the great explanation will come later, in 2027,” pleads Le Soir .

In Spain, El País compares the National Assembly to “a diabolical Rubik's Cube” , noting that the extreme right “is rubbing its hands in front of the spectacle” . Its competitor El Mundo mentions the names of Olivier Faure - a choice “complicated by ideological differences and accumulated tensions” - and Eric Lombard - “in a technocratic profile” - but mentions the role of Bruno Rétailleau, presented as “the key figure” , knowing that he declared a few weeks ago that LR would not govern with the socialists.

And in the case of a prime minister from the Socialist Party, how can one reconcile “ the record of the neoliberal president and the left's program, Macron's tax breaks and the socialists' tax on the rich?” asks the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

For its part, Corriere della Sera sees in the “ unprecedented public finance crisis” that France is going through an echo of Italy's 15 years ago. “ To get out of this impasse, the country would need a prime minister capable of adopting drastic measures, similar to those implemented by Mario Monti in Italy in 2011: cutting pensions and benefits, increasing tax revenues and reducing public spending,” suggests the Milanese headline, not exactly optimistic. “The French institutional system, based on semi-presidentialism, is proving less flexible and less resilient than the often-criticized Italian parliamentary model, which now seems more effective in managing deep crises.”

In another article entitled “What will happen now?” , the daily newspaper considers a possibility rejected until now because the President of the Republic has repeated that he will not leave the Élysée but “If the political impasse continues and France's financial situation worsens, Macron may be forced to change his mind.” Because, even if he “still has confidence in his ability to gesticulate, like Houdini, to get out of the worst situations […], the way out of the political and economic crisis weighing on France now seems almost too narrow,” considers Politico Europe.