France has once again been thrown into political upheaval, with its Prime Minister brought down not by a scandal or a sudden shift in public mood, but by the arithmetic of parliamentary hostility. The removal of François Bayrou, after less than a year in office, highlights a deeper dysfunction in the Fifth Republic: the inability of successive governments to forge durable majorities, even on existential issues like national debt. Mr Bayrou’s downfall was dramatic, but also strangely inevitable. By calling a confidence vote over fiscal restraint, he gambled not just with his own career but with the credibility of President Emmanuel Macron’s embattled second term.

His warnings of unsustainable liabilities ~ France’s €3.4 trillion debt and the ballooning cost of servicing it ~ were substantive. Yet in the theatre of French politics, substance rarely outshines symbolism. To left and right alike, the debate was not about numbers but........

© The Statesman