Leaders of the right-wing nationalist Rassemblement National (RN) party have called for the rapid dissolution of France’s parliament, urging President Emmanuel Macron to trigger snap elections as Prime Minister François Bayrou faces near-certain defeat in a confidence vote next week.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella made their demands on Tuesday, September 2nd, after an hour-long meeting with Bayrou, which they said produced “no miracle” and left their position unchanged.
“We call for an ultra-quick dissolution [of parliament], so that the new majority that will come out of these elections can build a budget ,” Le Pen told reporters, standing alongside Bardella, the party’s president.
Bayrou, who has been in office just over eight months, announced the confidence vote in an effort to overcome months of paralysis over his proposed €44 billion in spending cuts and tax rises.
The measures are aimed at reducing France’s budget deficit to 4.6% of GDP by 2026 from an expected 5.4% this year.
But both the RN and left-wing parties have vowed to vote him down, leaving his political survival prospects slim.
“The answer is simple: we don’t have confidence [in Bayrou]. The only way for a prime minister to have a slightly longer lifespan would be to break with Macronism,” Le Pen said.
Her party rejected the budget proposed in July, accusing it of failing to tackle any structural reforms and carefully avoiding the major items of expenditure responsible for the public deficit: social fraud, the cost of immigration, and France’s contribution to the European Union budget.
If Bayrou loses the vote on September 8th, Macron will face limited options. He could reappoint Bayrou in a caretaker role, name a new prime minister—his seventh since first taking office in 2017—or dissolve parliament and call snap parliamentary elections.
The president has repeatedly ruled out resignation, despite demands from the far-left.
Macron is already consulting his allies in search of a way forward.
According to daily Le Figaro, he met senior figures, including former prime minister Édouard Philippe, leader of Macron’s Renaissance party, Gabriel Attal, and the head of the centre-right Les Républicains, Bruno Retailleau, at the Élysée Palace on Tuesday, urging them to consider widening the fragile centrist coalition to include moderate conservatives and parts of the Socialist bloc.
Yet momentum is building towards fresh elections.
The RN, which already holds the largest number of seats in the parliament, is well placed to capitalise on the government’s collapse. A poll last week put the right-wing party at 31% in the first round of voting, far ahead of the (united) Left on 23.5%, and Macron’s Ensemble coalition languishing at 14%.
Crucially, analysts note that the ‘Republican Front’—the informal alliance of mainstream parties that in 2024 blocked dozens of RN victories in the second round—has weakened. More than half of voters now reject the idea of backing a rival candidate solely to keep Le Pen’s party out of power
For Macron, the stakes could not be higher. Last year’s snap election gamble produced a fragmented parliament and weakened his authority. Yet, another dissolution may be his only viable option.
