French Parliament Ousts Prime Minister Bayrou, Deepening Political Crisis

France's parliament voted overwhelmingly to oust Prime Minister François Bayrou and his minority government, rejecting his deficit-reduction plan aimed at curbing the country's ballooning national debt. Bayrou, who called the confidence vote himself in a bid to secure support for €44 billion in savings, became the first premier in modern French history to be removed through such a vote. The defeat leaves President Emmanuel Macron searching for his fifth prime minister in under two years amidst escalating political turmoil and mounting opposition calls for snap elections, which Macron has resisted so far. Opposition leaders, including Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have intensified pressure on Macron to resign as well. Macron's next government faces the urgent challenge of passing a budget in a deeply fractured National Assembly, with no faction holding a majority, complicating efforts to manage a national debt exceeding 114% of GDP. The political crisis threatens to deepen fiscal uncertainty in the eurozone's second-largest economy at a critical time for both domestic and international policy.