Six days before French Prime Minister François Bayrou's inescapable fall, on Tuesday, September 2, President Emmanuel Macron asked the leaders of parties in the governing coalition to "work with the Socialists" to prepare for the post-Bayrou era.

Bayrou's decision to call for a vote of confidence in the Assemblée Nationale on September 8, before the budget bill goes up for debate, accelerated the political crisis. Until now, the president had stayed rather discreet, but he has begun to act to break the deadlock. On Tuesday, he hosted a lunch with Bayrou and the leaders of the parties that support the government: Gabriel Attal (of Macron's Renaissance party), Edouard Philippe (Horizons, center-right), and Bruno Retailleau (Les Républicains, LR, right). At the impromptu and unprecedented meeting, Macron told them to "stand united and expand" ahead of the September 8 vote, and "if necessary, after that."

Over lunch, Macron raised the possibility of forming an expanded coalition, including the Socialists, following the collapse of Bayrou's government. "It will be without us!" replied Retailleau, France Inter radio reporter. "We cannot have a government agreement with the Socialist Party," added the Sénat President Gérard Larcher, of LR, in the newspaper Le Parisien on September 3.

With about 15 right-wing MPs intending to abstain or vote against the government next Monday, Macron instructed the party leaders to "reach out to the abstainers."

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