[Tubby Isaacs]

By a strange coincidence, this 8% seem highly overrepresented in British media.

[Youngian]

Perhaps Le Pen would like to step up to manage the deficit crisis.

France has been plunged into a new political crisis with the defeat of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou at a confidence vote in the National Assembly.

The defeat – by 364 votes to 194 – means that Bayrou will tomorrow present his government’s resignation to President Macron, who must now decide how to replace him. Macron’s office said this would happen “in the coming days”.

France is thus en route to getting its fifth prime minister in less than two years – a dismal record that underscores the drift and disenchantment that have marked President Macron’s second term.

Bayrou’s fall came after he staked his government on an emergency confidence debate centred on the question of French debt.

He spent the summer in speeches, interviews and social media posts warning of the “existential” threat to France if it did not start to tackle its 3.4 trillion euro liability.

But he was quickly disabused of any hope that his prophesies of financial doom would sway opponents. Lacking any majority in the National Assembly, Bayrou saw the left and hard-right uniting against him – and his fate was sealed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5yqgnzw759t

[Tubby Isaacs]

Le Pen and Melenchon can work it out between them by abolishing neoliberalism.

[Youngian]

It’s their groupings that pulled the plug on Bayou so I assume they want to hold the shitcan.
Jean Luc’s promises of early retirement for all and Le Pen’s pledge to abolish income tax for the under 30s (along with whatever other goodies they’ve written out on a Gauloises packet) aren’t likely to impress bond markets.

[Tubby Isaacs]

When you look at this stuff, you can understand the "never let a crisis go to waste" thing. Austerity Spain was way harsher than the UK's austerity, and must have done a fair bit of unnecessary damage. Hollande and Macron by contrast did mostly incremental stuff, and protected living standards much better, but whereas Spain is now praised (not least by the Left) France has got stuck. It's a cautionary tale for us "technocratic centrists".