BREAKING: French Government COLLAPSES

France’s government has collapsed.

French legislators voted to oust French Prime Minister François Bayrou in a confidence vote on Monday.

The move by the legislators resulted in the French having no current prime minister, which will now force French President Emmanuel Macron to appoint a new one.

NPR reported more details on the confidence vote and what it means:

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 François 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.

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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 U.S. President Donald Trump.

CNN had more details to report on the French government’s downfall:

French lawmakers voted to oust Prime Minister François Bayrou Monday, plunging the country into a new political crisis and leaving it without a government at a time of increasing economic strain and geopolitical tensions.

A total of 364 MPs voted against Bayrou and 194 voted for him after he called the vote in a bid to push through an unpopular €44 billion ($51 billion) savings plan that included scrapping two public holidays and freezing government spending. The 364 votes against Bayrou were well above the 280-vote threshold needed to topple the government.

Bayrou will now be forced to step down after just nine months in office, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Michel Barnier, who lost a no-confidence vote last December.

French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister in the coming days, according to the Élysée Palace. But Bayrou’s departure leaves Macron with few palatable options.

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Investors have been rattled. Yields on French government bonds – or the interest rate demanded by investors – have risen above those of Spanish, Portuguese and Greek bonds, which were once at the heart of the eurozone debt crisis. A possible downgrade of France’s sovereign debt rating review Friday would deliver another blow to its economic standing in Europe.

“You have the power to bring down the government, but you do not have the power to erase reality,” Bayrou told lawmakers on Monday ahead of the vote. “Reality will remain relentless: expenses will continue to rise, and the burden of debt, already unbearable, will grow heavier and more costly.”

“We broke the social contract” with younger generations, Bayrou added.