The result was never in question, but it has thrown real doubt over France’s future.
Francois Bayrou gambled and lost.
France’s prime minister called a surprise vote of no confidence in late August, and this evening the National Assembly in Paris voted to oust him from office.
It leaves France with no solution to a worsening economic crisis and President Emmanuel Macron with few good options.
Read more: France’s PM loses confidence vote
He is now forced to look for a new prime minister, his fifth in a little over two years.
But there is no guarantee this will break a parliamentary deadlock that is of his own making after he lost his parliamentary majority following snap elections in 2024.
Increasingly, there is a view that the only way through this mess is for Mr Macron himself to go; he’s repeatedly refused.
The National Assembly, like many a political chamber, voted according to its own interests.
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The Socialists feel overlooked by Mr Macron and want their own person installed as PM; National Rally, the far-right party of Marine Le Pen, want new elections because they are confident of success, and the Far Left simply want to bring down the French president.
Mr Bayrou’s argument to reform the economy, however sound, fell on deaf ears.
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He warned that without swift and sweeping reforms, France would continue staggering “towards the edge of a cliff”.
His opponents didn’t buy it – they accuse him of scaremongering and blame the instability on Mr Macron’s eight years in power.
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Mr Macron famously came to power with the prediction that France was a country incapable of reform.
Then, it was seen as a personal challenge to the confident young leader.
Now, he has barely 18 months left in office to prove himself wrong.
