French politics took an absurdist turn this week, after parliament voted on September 8th to bring down a government for the second time in nine months. This time the victim was the centrist François Bayrou, whose minority government collapsed after a crushing defeat at a vote of confidence over his unpopular deficit-cutting budget. Last December parliament also toppled his predecessor, the centre-right Michel Barnier, also over the budget. Undeterred, President Emmanuel Macron on September 9th named a close ally, the defence minister Sébastien Lecornu, as his next pick—his fifth prime minister since 2022. Mr Lecornu’s task is to try to break the cycle of parliamentary deadlock that has thwarted almost all government business, and turned domestic politics into a sorry repetitive spectacle.