France is on the brink of another political crisis, after Prime Minister François Bayrou's shock decision to submit his government to a vote of confidence in parliament, reports BBC News.
The chances of his winning the vote in a special session of the National Assembly on September 8 being extremely slim, the prime minister's days in office look numbered.
If the vote is lost, Bayrou will be expected to resign, leaving France once again rudderless at a time of immense economic, social and geopolitical uncertainty.
For the second time inside a year, the disastrous effects of President Emmanuel Macron's hasty parliamentary dissolution of July 2024 threaten institutional chaos and even civil unrest.
Far from offering the "clarity" that Macron wanted after his defeat in European polls in June 2024, the newly elected National Assembly was split three ways between centrists, the populist right, and the left – meaning that no government of any stripe could hope for a majority.
Macron himself was cut out of domestic politics and forced to focus on international affairs.
The first post-dissolution prime minister, Michel Barnier, struggled on until December, but then was brought down when the opposition parties combined against his budget.
And now exactly the same thing seems about to happen to his replacement.
The only difference is that Bayrou is refusing to go through the same agony of three months of ultimately fruitless debate in parliament. Like a desperate gambler, he is staking the house on an initial vote of confidence.
If he wins, it will be a spectacular vindication of his apocalyptic strategy, warning – like a lone prophetic voice – of the existential threat to France if it fails to take back control of its debt.
The trouble is no-one expects him to win the vote. Least of all, probably, he himself.
The numbers are easy to count.
The four pro-government groups in the Assembly have 210 deputies between them. The oppositions – of left and right – have between them 353.
Read more of this report from BBC News.