As Europe goes back to school, it already had plenty on its plate. Now – on top of inflation, extreme weather, the AI race, Russian threats and a no-longer-so-friendly United States, it's got a new worry: France.

After last year's baffling dissolution that resulted in a hung parliament, the French prime minister's now got six days to convince the opposition parties that hold his fate in their hands that he was right to preempt a raucous showdown over his austerity budget and call a vote of confidence next Monday. Like with Emmanuel Macron a year ago, François Bayrou didn’t have to put his neck on the line. But he did.

And if all goes to script next Monday, the centrist 74-year-old mainstay of French politics will have to make way for Macron's fifth prime minister since his re-election in 2022. Why the seemingly self-inflicted crisis? What are the president's options? The far left and far right want the term-limited Macron to resign. Is it about the man or the system?

Next week’s vote is only the start of it. Trade unions have latched onto a Yellow Vests-style day of action called for September 10. Where it will lead? It's hard to say, in a nation where critics quip that citizens prefer revolution to reform. We ask about a country that fared better than most during Covid but never shut the tap after on stimulus spending. Rising borrowing costs on French debt show that for markets and jittery neighbours, it's time to pay the piper.

Produced by François Picard, Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.