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The situation difficult on the plan budgetary, on the plan financial.

I'm also very vigilant on the markets financial, that I know,

I'm quite difficult, on the plan economic and social, I just

to you'll do it.

That was French Prime Minister Michel Barnier speaking about the country's difficult

budgetary situation last week before he lost a no-confidence vote that forced his resignation.

France is now facing yet another crisis as it has no obvious path to delivering a fresh budget.

Amid this uncertainty, what will happen to the country's borrowing costs?

Will President Emmanuel Macron survive?

These questions and more are the focus of this week's

Views Room. Welcome back to the Views Room, the weekly podcast that invites you, the

listener into a lively discussion with breaking views columnists. I'm your host, Amy Donnellin.

Michelle Barnier's plan was attempting to tackle France's rising debt.

Under his proposals, public debt could have risen to 113% of GDP, and then 116% by 2026, before declining slowly.

Shrinking the deficit via fairly modest spending cuts like freezing state pensions below inflation levels for six months were considered too drastic. But all of this instability

will make it even harder for France to grow its economy. Meanwhile, French stocks are down.

The country's main market has declined 10% since June and is underperforming

all other major European exchanges. Thankfully, we have two experts in both France and economics

with us today. We are joined by Pierre Branson, who is covering the situation in France very closely,

and Francesco Guerrera are global head of economics

at breaking views. Pierre Francesco, you are very welcome.

...