French President Emmanuel Macron does not have a majority in the fragmented and divided parliament and will not have an easy time finding a new prime minister to replace François Bayrou.
The leading question for the president is who will be able to overcome the division in the National Assembly and pass the 2026 budget.
With the upcoming presidential elections in 2027, Macron's opponents have little incentive to make his life easier.
Here are some of the names being tossed around as a possible successor to Bayrou:
Sebastian Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces, resigns
Sébastian Lecornu, 39, is running for in the race for prime minister in December, before Bayrou managed to convince the president at the last minute that he was in the best position to reach a consensus on the budget. Lecornu left the conservative "Republicans" party and joined Macron's centrist political party after his victory in the 2017 presidential election. Five years later, Lecornu led Macron's re-election campaign.
Lecornu entered politics at the age of 16, when he campaigned in support of Nicolas Sarkozy. When he turned 18, Lecornu won the mayoral election in a small town in Normandy, and four years later became the youngest councilor in Sarkozy's government.
Representatives of Marine Le Pen's far-right "National Rally" party said they could give Lecornu conditional support. In April 2024, Le Pen and Le Corneille had a "discreet dinner", and this information, confirmed by a knowledgeable source, caused outrage in the ranks of the left.
Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Labor Resigns
Catherine Vautrin - a politician, a veteran of the "Republicans", was appointed Minister of Labor in the Bayrou government.
Her return to the political scene is connected with Macron's attempt to make his government more attractive in the face of growing social tensions and fragmented parliamentary dynamics, as well as to strengthen relations between the ruling centrist bloc and the conservatives. Previously, the sixty-five-year-old Vautrin held a ministerial post in the government of former President Jacques Chirac. She was tipped as a possible candidate for prime minister in 2022, before Macron gave the post to Elisabeth Borne.
Eric Lombard, finance minister resigns
Eric Lombard, 67, is finance minister in Bayrou's cabinet during a period of political and fiscal turmoil.
He has previously worked as a banker and also served as an advisor to former finance minister in the 1990s, the socialist Michel Sapin, during which time Lombard acted as a pragmatic mediator between the divided political blocs in parliament. He is on good terms with the leaders of the French Socialists.
Lombard led the preparation of the plan to reduce the budget deficit by 44 billion euros. The plan includes tax increases and spending cuts in the 2026 budget, but Lombar acknowledges that any new government will inevitably have to limit its savings ambitions in order for the budget to be passed by parliament. Lombard told the Financial Times that he was against imposing new taxes on businesses, but that he did not rule out the possibility of introducing higher taxes on high-income earners.
Lombard categorically rejects the idea that a Greek-style debt crisis is looming in France.
Pierre Moscovici, president of the French Court of Auditors
Pierre Moscovici, who is 67, is a prominent French politician and economist and is currently president of the Court of Auditors, France's main audit institution.
Moscovici was finance minister from 2012 to 2014 and led President Francois Hollande's response to the eurozone crisis. The violent reaction against the planned tax increases forced Moscovici to abandon this measure.
Later, from 2014 to 2019, he was European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs. At that time, Moscovici advocated strict fiscal discipline throughout the EU.
In July of this year, Moscovici said that France's growing budget deficit posed a "mortal danger" to the country's economic stability.
Bernard Cazeneuve, former prime minister from the Socialist Party
Sixty-two-year-old Bernard Cazeneuve is a long-time politician from the Socialist Party, respected for his calm demeanor and his ability to react to crises.
He was prime minister from December 2016 to May 2017, during the administration of President Hollande. Before that, Cazeneuve was interior minister and led France's security response after the 2015 Paris attacks and the 2016 Nice truck attack.
Translated from English: Nikolay Velev, BTA