Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, BERTRAND GUAY/AFP

The Socialists have said they won't back Bayrou, and on the far right the National Rally have said so too, telling him they only way out of the current impasse is new parliamentary elections.

But some of the most trenchant criticism of Bayrou has come from the Greens whose Cyrielle Chatelain has attacked the prime minister's record in office and his "harmful lies".

As Bayrou shook his head, Chatelain told him: "Your departure is a relief. If it weren't for the worry of what comes next, it would be almost satisfying."

She's calling for a government of the left to ditch austerity and replace it with what she calls "fiscal justice". It's not a question of changing the face of the government, but of changing course.

So far today we have heard from Prime Minister François Bayrou, who spoke for around 40 minutes.

Then it was the turn of parliamentary leaders: the Socialists' Boris Vallaud, the Republicans' Laurent Wauquiez and the Greens' Cyrielle Chatelain.

Still to come after a short pause are:

• Marc Fesneau for MoDem, Bayrou's party
• Paul Christophe of the centre-right Horizons
• Laurent Panifous of the Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories group
• Stéphane Peu of the Communists
• Marine Le Pen of the National Rally
• Together's Gabriel Attal, Macron's former prime minister
• Far-left France Unbowed's Mathilde Panot
• Non-registered MP Philippe Bonnecarrère

Most of them are allocated 10 minutes, bar Marine Le Pen who gets 15 and Gabriel Attal who will speak for just under that.

France is in its most serious predicament since World War Twopublished at 15:38 British Summer Time 8 September

15:38 BST 8 September

Hugh Schofield
Paris correspondent

The French people looking on at this sorry spectacle are jaded, disillusioned and fatalistic.

To the standard dislike of Paris and the establishment has been added – through the last 15 months of political chaos – a whole new layer of despair and contempt.

In countless conversations you hear the same refrain. Basically it is this: “They have given up on us, so we are giving up on them.”

This is why so many commentators see in the current crisis not just a passing democratic spasm, but a moment of epoch-defining gravity.

As the veteran analyst Alain Duhamel (who has interviewed every president since De Gaulle) put it, France is in its most serious predicament since World War Two.

Certainly the collapse of the Fourth Republic in 1958 was a time of tension and fear. But back then there were two factors that have since gone missing.

First, the economy was doing fine. Second, there was a saviour waiting in the wings – in the person of the good general.

Today, there is three trillion of debt and the head of state is a figure of loathing.

So will it all mean mass insurrection? Will the French turn out in force on Wednesday, as they’re being urged to by Bloquons Tout?

Don’t count on it.

Wednesday’s movement looks increasingly like it’s been taken over by the ultra-left, and the people are just as jaded and disillusioned about them.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

Image source, Reuters

Laurent Wauquiez is up next. He is the leader of the right-wing Republicans in the Assembly. He starts off by reminding MPs France has had four prime ministers in the space of a year.

"Some are enjoying this [instability]... Political instability is poison for the economy," he says, adding that "workers in our country are paying the price, and all French people are paying the consequences".

He accuses Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of far-left opposition party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), of angling for "chaos", and says that the Republicans will never work with the party or in a government that follows the lead of the left-wing grouping, Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front).

He praises Bayrou for telling the truth about the state of France's finances but accuses him of "disguising" tax increases and axing two public holidays to the detriment of workers.

He says he is giving his MPs the freedom to vote how they wanted - also stating he will vote in support of Bayrou, albeit "without enthusiasm".

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Reuters

A debate is now taking place in the National Assembly. It will include speeches from all the leaders of all the parliamentary groups, who each get at least 10 minutes before the vote at around 18:00 BST.

President Emmanuel Macron is seen as a centrist, and Bayrou's outgoing government is a mixture of centrists and right-wing Republicans.

But it's worth remembering the president's political teeth were cut with the Socialists during François Hollande's presidency.

There's little affection for Macron on the left now. However while some parties on the left and far right have called on Macron to resign,the Socialists have said they are ready to take charge as part of a left-green government.

That hasn't stopped the Socialist leader in the Assembly, Boris Vallaud, from tearing into Macron and "his blind followers" - such as Bayrou - for leading France into its current impasse.

"Emmanuel Macron has never stopped destroying the country," Vallaud says. "Only one person is to blame for the crisis, the president of France."

If Macron does approach a Socialist to lead the next government of France, he'll have to swallow his pride before he does.

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

On the confidence vote: Bayrou started by justifying calling the vote on himself. "The biggest risk was not to take one at all, to continue... with politics as usual, to carry on... until we reached the cliff-edge”.

On the economy: He warned politicians that the national debt - currently 113.9% of GDP - “has a price”, arguing that "the whole model of our nation needs to be reinvented”.

On young people: Bayrou warned that France's youth will fall victim to the “slavery” of debt. Their complaint, he said: "We won't get a pension - pensions won't ever be for us”.

Throughout his speech, PM Bayrou addressed criticisms and demands from different sides of parliament.

"I hear you over there talking about how we need to tax more. No, this is not what I want to do," the prime minister told the National Assembly.

Later on, he said "those on his right" say the problem is "immigrants... that we need to just send them home".

"I'm hearing from them as well that the problem is the European Union. Yes, it's easier to find people and institutions to blame," Bayrou said.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

The French PM has wrapped up his speech to parliament. We've still got some outstanding lines to bring you, so don't go anywhere yet.

"We, citizens, aren't doomed to either obey or revolt. We are here to take an active part in our destiny, our eyes wide open, using truth as a compass," Bayrou said as he closed his speech.

He added that the French are people who think deeply not only about their future or that of the world and the planet, "but on the road we can take to build this future".

"That means that in this moment... there is only one road for France: the road of shared truth and courage," he concludes to scattered applause.

Now party leaders will have the chance to respond to the prime minister's speech. The confidence vote is expected this evening, in a few hours.

The French prime minister has finished his 40-minute statement to the National Assembly. We will continue to bring you the key lines from his address, stay with us.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Reuters

François Bayrou speaks of a country on life support and addicted to spending, as he warns that it's France's young people who will be the main victims.

He talks about freeing them from the "slavery" of debt they are currently facing.

"For decades," he complains, "France has broken the contract of trust between generations."

"Don't say you love young people... if you pretend to ignore the crushing burden of debt that has accumulated on their shoulders."

Bayrou, 74, says he's been struck by the sense of unfairness among young people that they have been sacrificed for their predecessors. Their complaint, he says: "We won't get a pension - pensions won't ever be for us."

He recently warned that the "boomer" generation that he is part of has been pushing France to the brink.

Two years ago France raised the pension age from 62 to 64 for those born in 1968 or afterwards, and Bayrou has warned that the sense that French workers can stop working during their early 60s is out of date.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

Much of Bayrou's speech aims to highlight the risks France is up against, which he is urging politicians not to ignore in favour of party politics.

"You have the power to overthrow the government but you don't have to power to erase the truth," Bayrou tells MPs.

"Reality presses on relentlessly, expenses continue to pile on, and the weight of debt - already unbearable - will become heavier and even more costly," he insists.

He adds that he is now talking to politicians "as if destiny hadn't been written yet" despite the fact that the collapse of this government has been treated as a foregone conclusion.

He continues to be heckled and the speaker of the assembly tries to keep MPs quiet, reminding them they will get a chance to speak.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

Using a metaphor for France as a ship sailing on troubled seas, Bayrou says that he is like a captain that has been told his vessel is taking on water. "I say our task is to make it watertight."

Yet he says he has been accused of being "impatient".

"I am told: the ship is carrying on, we shouldn't bother the passengers or the crew... But I say the opposite: if we want to save this ship on which we and our children are sailing we have to act quickly. We need the mobilisation of all."

He is trying to impress on MPs that France is sinking under heavy debt. Earlier in the speech he said that each year France owes its creditors 100bn euros - twice as much as it produces.

France has ran a budget deficit for 51 years, Bayrou also says, calling it out “a reflex, or worse, an addiction” of the French state.

"Our country works, thinks it is getting richer, and instead every year it becomes poorer. It's a silent, buried, invisible and unbearable haemorrhage."

As Bayrou speaks, some MPs shake their heads and others heckle him.

For months, the PM has been warning that France is living beyond its meanspublished at 14:21 British Summer Time 8 September

14:21 BST 8 September

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Reuters

François Bayrou didn't have to call this vote, but he did have to get France's 2026 budget past the National Assembly and realised he was going to struggle to persuade MPs to back almost 44bn euros (£38bn) in cuts to the budget.

In that sense, he may have jumped before his opponents pushed him.

For months he's been warning that France is living beyond its means. The choice, he says, is between chaos and responsibility. But the cards are stacked against you when you're running a minority government and trying to persuade his political opponents to ditch two public holidays and agree to tax hikes to help make the numbers add up.

Last year's budget deficit was 5.8% of national economic output (GDP) and this year's is not expected to be much lower, at 5.4%.

Public debt is at 113.9% of GDP, according to figures from early this year, and after Greece and Italy it's the highest in the eurozone. That's equivalent to almost €50,000 per French citizen.

Without a majority in parliament, Bayrou knew he wouldn't get a budget through, so it looks as if someone else will have to try.

Bayrou focuses on economy from startpublished at 14:18 British Summer Time 8 September

14:18 BST 8 September

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

The French PM has made it clear from the start what this all about - France's national debt which he's called a curse - and he's describing this afternoon's confidence as a "moment of truth".

"We are faced with an ageing population," he told MPs. "The whole model of our nation needs to be reinvented."

In other words continuing as usual is not an option.

Bayrou persuaded the National Assembly to pass his government's budget last February, but his hope of winning over MPs again looks like a step too far.

France keeps spending more and borrowing more, he complains. The national debt is currently 113.9% of GDP - France's national output.

"This debt has a price," he warns.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

Image source, Reuters

French Prime Minister François Bayrou starts his address off by justifying his choice to call a confidence vote in his government - which he knows he is unlikely to survive.

"I chose this," he says, with a hoarse voice. "Some... thought it was unreasonable, that it was too great a risk. I thought the opposite - that the biggest risk was not to take one at all, to continue... with politics as usual, to carry on... until we reached the cliff-edge."

Bayrou has long warned about France's finances and has been looking to shore up support for his budget, which he hoped would plug 44bn euro fiscal hole.

He goes on to say that France has "a huge number of questions" ahead which will require "profound changes" - and lists France's high debt and low productivity to back his point.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou is now addressing parliament, after calling a vote on confidence in himself.

You can follow a translation of his speech by tapping watch live at the top of this page.

If Bayrou falls, replacing him could be a drawn-out processpublished at 13:56 British Summer Time 8 September

13:56 BST 8 September

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

If as expected François Bayrou loses the vote in the National Assembly early this evening, then we’re probably in for another period of doubt, drift and speculation.

It is possible Emmanuel Macron will act quickly to appoint a new prime minister – it’s certainly in the country’s interest that he do so.

But practicalities – and precedent – both suggest this could turn out to be a drawn-out process.

Macron has to find a name sufficiently unobjectionable to at least some of the parliamentary opposition that they won’t automatically bring him or her down.

The first two PMs in this benighted parliament – Michel Barnier and François Bayrou – took weeks to find. The third won’t be any easier.

In the meantime Bayrou would presumably stay on as caretaker head of government.

There is pressure from some quarters – notably Marine Le Pen’s National Rally – for a new dissolution of the Assembly. But there are also strong voices saying it would be a waste of time, because a new vote would be unlikely to change much.

Beyond that there are also voices – from the far-left this time – calling for Macron’s resignation as president. But don’t watch this space. Knowing the character of the man, it is most unlikely to happen.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Reuters

The sequence of events leading to Monday’s confidence vote and François Bayrou’s expected defeat kicks off with his address to the National Assembly at 15:00 French time (14:00 BST).

He’ll speak for at least an hour in what’s called a general policy statement, and then a debate will take place that includes speeches from all the leaders of all the parliamentary groups. They all get at least 10 minutes to speak and then at the end Bayrou has a chance to respond before the big vote at around 18:00 BST.

This has been tabled an “extraordinary session” and for Bayrou it almost certainly will be his last as prime minister.

In a post on Instagram, external, the National Assembly says session has almost begun.

"The Hemicycle is ready, are you?” it asked, showing a man changing the date on the board to Monday 8 September, complete with tense music.

Voting involves dropping ballots into an urn and takes about half an hour and, assuming all the parties stick to their positions, Bayrou will become the fifth French prime minister to lose his job in a confidence vote since the start of France’s Fifth Republic.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

Image source, Getty Images

In June 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron took a gamble.

Faced with a bruising loss for his party in the European Parliament vote, he called a snap parliamentary election which he hoped would achieve "a clear majority in serenity and harmony".

Instead, it resulted in a hung, divided parliament that has made it difficult for any prime minister to garner the necessary support to pass bills and the yearly budget.

Macron appointed Michel Barnier last September but he was ejected after only three months. This evening Francois Bayrou is set to suffer the same fate as his government faces a no confidence vote.

Meanwhile several parties – chiefly on the far right and the far left – continue to clamour for an early presidential election.

But Macron has always said he will not stand down before his term ends in 2027.

Instead, he will likely have to choose between appointing a fifth prime minister in less than two years - who again risks working on borrowed time - or calling snap elections, which could result in an even more hostile parliament.

There are few good options for the president as the effects of his June 2024 gamble continue to reverberate.