François Bayrou may have thought it was a smart pre-emptive move to call a parliamentary vote of confidence in his minority government ahead of a planned national protest day on 10 September and the start of a fraught parliamentary budget season.

Determined not to meet the same fate as his predecessor who was toppled by parliament last December, the French prime minister appears to have chosen political hara-kiri instead. His near-certain ejection by a hung parliament on Monday (8 September) is set to turn a smouldering political deadlock into a blazing crise de régime.

France’s Fifth Republic constitution, framed by Gen Charles de Gaulle in 1958 to create a strong executive and a pliant legislature, has ceased to deliver stable governments. Without a change in the system, France faces extended political paralysis. In the meantime, it seems incapable of resolving a chronic fiscal crisis that is starting to worry financial markets. The finance minister, Éric Lombard, last week declined to rule out having to seek an IMF bailout before abruptly back-pedalling when investors took fright.

If, as expected, the veteran centrist........

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