Is France broken? Is France broke? Marine Le Pen to join the left and bring down a minority government that was scrambling to plug France's spiraling budget deficit. What is the plan for the far-right leader of parliament’s largest opposition party?

We will ask about a crisis that has been brewing ever since Emmanuel Macron’s surprise call for snap elections backfired last July with a hung parliament that constitutionally cannot be dissolved again until summer. With next year's budget yet to be approved, there will not be a US-style shutdown, but it is anyone's guess how a caretaker government limps along with a spiraling deficit. 

Yes, the hangover from tax breaks and Covid-era subsidies has France borrowing at a higher cost than Greece … and with an opposition that wants no part of belt-tightening and neighbouring Germany also in political and economic turmoil, it is all of Europe that just might have a problem. 

 

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Elisa Amiri, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayda Ibip.