With rising unemployment and falling domestic consumption, France needs urgent policy interventions. It has seen a jump in fiscal deficit, to 6.1% of GDP, worse than Greece, Spain and Italy, the Eurozone countries hit hard by the 2008-09 debt crisis. France’s debt has also ballooned to €3.2 trillion, more than 112% of its GDP. What makes the crisis worse is the absence of a stable government. Mr. Bayrou’s immediate task is to get an emergency budget passed in Parliament so that essential services run. But this will entail painful negotiations with the far-right, which is opposed to any more cuts in social spending. This takes the political and economic situation back to square one. Part of the problem is Mr. Macron’s refusal to accept shifting political dynamics. An anti-establishment constituency is gaining strength from economic agonies. While the far-right and the left are trying to mobilise the working population from different political platforms, Mr. Macron is trying to preserve the status quo (mis)using his presidential powers. By appointing unpopular leaders who lack a clear mandate as Prime Ministers, he is prolonging the crisis. If he was serious about ‘institutional stability’, a favourite Macronist mantra, he should have sought to build a coalition with the largest bloc, the Left, and helped them rule based on a consensus-driven political and economic programme.