At the Ambassadors' Room in the Elysée Palace, Emmanuel Macron showed no outward sign of his concern. Four days before the anticipated fall of Prime Minister François Bayrou's government, the French president, speaking in front of a dozen European leaders of countries that have joined France in the "coalition of the willing," who had gathered in Paris to support Ukraine against Russia's aggression on September 4, appeared to be "the coolest leader" in attendance, according to Finnish President Alexander Stubb. "I trust Emmanuel, he will handle the situation," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told his team, aiming to reassure those worried about the political weakening of this key ally.

On Monday, the French president "duly noted," as he put it, the lawmakers' vote, as the Assemblée withheld their confidence from the prime minister by a wide margin. The vote came as a sanction, and it has extended France's period of political instability, which began a year before with the president's decision to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale. This occured at a time when the geopolitical context, rocked by wars, the upheaval of the world order and the rise of populism, demanded that Europe spring into action on the international stage.

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