Bayrou has been trying to get lawmakers on board with an unpopular €43.8 billion budget squeeze aimed at reining in France’s budget deficit.
By calling a confidence vote two days before a planned nationwide shutdown and two weeks before MPs were expected to return to work, Bayrou is gambling that lawmakers can at least agree that France’s dire financial situation needs rectifying.
Leaders from the far-left France Unbowed, the center-left Socialists and the far-right National Rally, including Marine Le Pen, have already vowed to support toppling the government.
Few are betting Bayrou will survive, including France’s benchmark index CAC40, which dropped by more than 1.5 percent after the prime minister’s announcements. French banks including Société Générale and Credit Agricole took major hits on Tuesday as well.
Financial institutions and rating agencies have in recent years repeatedly urged France to rein in public spending amid concerns that the eurozone’s second largest economy could face a Greek-style debt crisis. On Tuesday, the yield on 10-year French government bonds rose above 3.5 percent — higher than Greece’s — and the yield on French 30-year government bonds hit more than 4.4 percent, a peak not seen since May 2009.
Bayrou’s budget for 2026 includes billions in savings designed to assuage concerned creditors and bring down the budget deficit from 5.8 percent of gross domestic product this year to 4.6 percent in 2026 — and then down to 3 percent by 2029 in line with European Union rules.
Geoffrey Smith contributed to this report.