France's prime minister loses confidence vote, toppling his government

Legislators toppled France's government in a confidence vote on Monday, a new crisis for Europe's second-largest economy that obliges President Emmanuel Macron to search for a fourth prime minister in 12 months.

Prime Minister Franois Bayrou was ousted overwhelmingly in a 364-194 vote against him. Bayrou paid the price for what appeared to be a staggering political miscalculation, gambling that lawmakers would back his view that France must slash public spending to repair its debts.

Instead, they seized on the vote that he called to gang up against Bayrou a 74-year-old centrist who was appointed by Macron last December.

The demise of Bayrou's short-lived minority government now constitutionally obliged to submit its resignation to Macron after just under nine months in office heralds renewed uncertainty and a risk of prolonged legislative deadlock for France as it wrestles with pressing challenges, including budget difficulties and, internationally, wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the shifting priorities of US President Donald Trump.