France: after Bayrou's fall – general mobilisation! Organise renewable strikes!

François Bayrou's fall was celebrated last night with farewell parties organised in front of a number of town halls. Generally, it was welcomed with satisfaction by millions of young people and workers.

[Originally published in French at marxist.org]

As a consolation, Bayrou can always boast that he lasted six months longer than his predecessor, Michel Barnier. The ‘credit’ for this goes to the leaders of the National Rally (RN), the Socialist Party (PS) and most of the trade union confederations (via the ‘conclave’ on pensions), who offered Bayrou a reprieve in early 2025, which allowed for the adoption of an austerity budget.

This summer, Bayrou overplayed his hand by announcing an even more reactionary budget for 2026. He was counting on the support of the RN and/or the PS. In itself, this was already a very risky gamble, because although the leaders of the RN and the PS are loyal servants of the ruling class, they are not entirely willing to commit political suicide. But it was the emergence of the 10 September movement that dealt the final blow to the Bayrou government. By scheduling his own downfall for 8 September, he was primarily seeking to defuse a social movement supported by a very large majority of the population.

From the height of his colossal unpopularity, Macron informed the good people that he would quickly appoint a new Prime Minister. However, as we wrote in the latest editorial of Révolution: “A new Prime Minister from the ‘Socle commun’ [the governing coalition of right-wing and establishment parties], appointed on a simple nomination, would be very unpopular from the outset. It would be a provocation, one more reason to ‘block everything’.” Incidentally, the same would be true if Macron appointed a supposedly ‘left-wing’ Prime Minister, who would immediately announce… a right-wing (austerity) policy.

The haggling, posturing and petty calculations have resumed with a vengeance at the top of the RN, PS, Greens and the French Communist Party (PCF). For their part, a growing number of Les Républicains (LR) MPs are preparing for a formal alliance with the RN, with a view to early legislative elections: hence the 13 votes against and 9 abstentions from the LR yesterday. But for now, the main focus is elsewhere: in the streets and in the workplaces. If it is powerful and, above all, if it triggers a movement of renewable strikes, the movement of 10 September will sweep away the tangle of contradictory manoeuvres that are stirring up the upper echelons of political life.

Today, La France Insoumise (FI) MPs will table a motion to impeach the President of the Republic. At the same time, Mélenchon and his comrades are calling on the people to mobilise en masse, starting on 10 September, to force Macron to resign. This offensive approach contrasts with the moderation of the rest of the parliamentary ‘left’. That said, on the eve of 10 September, we need to go much further.

As we wrote recently: 

“The fundamental question that the 10 September movement will raise, if it succeeds in ‘blocking everything’ for a sustained period, will go far beyond the fate of Emmanuel Macron. If they succeed in blocking the economy, the workers will demonstrate to everyone – and first and foremost to themselves – that they are the decisive force in society. Not a light shines and not a wheel turns without their kind permission. Their labour is also the sole source of the ruling class's enormous profits, in the name of which it demands a drastic austerity plan and the destruction of public services.

“Since workers create all wealth, they can and must run society. Hence our slogan: ‘for a workers’ government’. At first glance, it may seem abstract, out of reach. But in reality, this slogan will impose itself on the consciousness of millions of workers when their collective mobilisation – in a massive and renewable strike – demonstrates that without them, economic and social life comes to a halt.

“The next step, which follows immediately from this, is the conviction that society will function much better once it is rid of the handful of giant parasites that are destroying it. Workers in power will know how to reorganise the economy on rational and democratic bases. They will begin by expropriating the big bourgeoisie, the major means of production and exchange, which they will then use to satisfy the needs of the majority. Once the infernal race for profits has been eliminated, the enormous industrial and technological wealth will make it possible to quickly eliminate all forms of poverty and gradually reduce working hours.”

This is the central focus of the programme that the Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire will defend in the mobilisations on 10 September and the days that follow.