Vote of confidence: “The French are hostages to political irresponsibility”

Under the Fifth Republic, according to Article 49, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, the Prime Minister has the power to "commit the government's responsibility for its program to the National Assembly." If the National Assembly disapproves the program, the government is automatically forced to resign under the terms of Article 50 of the Constitution. This is the provision that François Bayrou decided to activate on September 8th as part of a general policy statement. The issue concerns in particular the 2026 budget, the famous 44 billion to be found , and the trajectory for restoring public finances. At this stage, the most likely scenario is that the government will fall, leading to a period of great uncertainty.

Since this announcement, everyone has been calling for responsibility. The Prime Minister , in a slightly over-dramatic manner, indicates that "the choice comes down to chaos or responsibility", while Bruno Retailleau declares for his part that "it is irresponsible to plunge the country into a major financial crisis whose consequences would first affect the most vulnerable." For them, the irresponsible would therefore be the parties that would not vote for confidence and would bring down the government.

With the front reversed, for the parties likely to vote for no confidence (RN, LFI, PS, Ecologists, PC), it is the Prime Minister who is solely responsible for the situation. For example, for Olivier Faure, the leader of the PS: " It is not up to the opposition to bear the burden of the majority's mistakes." The opposition thus absolves itself in advance of the instability that a vote of no confidence would create, leading to the government's resignation.

The person responsible is always someone else, and to parody a famous quote from a minister, the French seem to be confronted with the spectacle of a political class where "everyone is guilty but not responsible." Indeed, how can we not be surprised that the Prime Minister is contesting the opposition's right to apply the Constitution by voting no confidence? Similarly, how can we not be surprised that parties that were otherwise planning to table a motion of censure—and thus bring down the government—could consider that its fall would not be their responsibility?

A decidedly strange spectacle that may ultimately give the French the impression that all politicians are irresponsible, that is, incapable of answering for their actions and the consequences of their actions. The French are then hostages to the egos of some, the ulterior motives of others, the three-pronged strategies of the parties, and above all to the general inability to discuss and negotiate and therefore to compromise. But they are also hostages to the "original sin" of the dissolution desired by Emmanuel Macron in June 2024. The real culprit, since there has to be one, would be him.

But in the chain of causality, by tracing the "origin of the evil" back to the President of the Republic, is this not a way of absolving ourselves of our own responsibilities, we, the citizens and voters who sent an ungovernable Assembly to the Palais-Bourbon? It seems here that this would amount to restricting the ability of citizens to truly express themselves, to make "free and informed" choices, in short, to calling into question the very principle of democracy.

Having reached this stage, it seems to us that we may finally have found the "responsible party", that is to say the cause of a political situation in which the country seems ungovernable, without a project, mired in waiting and resentment: it is the political system, in the sense of the institutional framework, which is ours. It now appears to be totally unsuited to our societies, to the challenges they have to face, to the new decision-making temporalities in a constantly accelerating world, to the scales of governance (Europe versus nation)... Therefore, this is the real issue, changing this framework, reforming it, stimulating imagination and audacity and the search for false leaders – prime minister, president, parties... – will not change anything.