What if the risk French Prime Minister François Bayrou has taken in seeking a vote of confidence on Monday, September 8, extends beyond the financial markets? By tying the fate of his government to his spending-cut plan, the prime minister was also testing a public already shaken by a crisis of confidence in French institutions.

Democratic fatigue, which researchers have been examining for decades, has taken on a new dimension this season, one year after President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections. The coalition governments since then have dissatisfied voters of left-wing parties and of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN). Behind Bayrou's Gaullist posture lies the risk of alienating a whole segment of citizens who already expect little from politics.

"Bayrou's dramatization is politically, socially and financially crazy," said Henri Guaino, former advisor to ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy. "This politics of sacrifice revives simmering anger and fuels the proliferation of scapegoats. In a society that has felt sacrificed for decades, it is not the right way to approach the problem." While acknowledging the difficulty of France's budget equation, Guiano added, "No regime can survive the absence of consent."

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