Welcome to the Euro Intelligence Podcast.

I'm Wolfgang Munchau, and with me are Zasanna Muncheng and Jack Smith.

Today, once again, we will talk about France.

Emmanuel Macron has just appointed Sebastian Le Corny, the former defense minister,

as the new prime minister to succeed Francois Beirou, who predictably lost the vote of confidence in the

National Assembly by a surprisingly, we thought, a surprisingly wide margin.

So we're basically in a situation where another attempt will be made to sort out the political

difficulties that France has gotten into.

Susanne, you've been covering the story for us. Where are we now? What are the, where is it going?

Yes, I think the most depressing thing about French politics at the moment is that we can start

any paragraph with the first sentence.

As expected, François Berrault failed in his endeavor to get the public to back his budget

that was to solve the public debt or to really produce it significantly the public debt.

He failed to convince people.

Instead, we had parties becoming much more political,

turning into a campaign modus,

and voted Baru out of Osses.

So he was the fourth prime minister since 2022,

the second term of Emmanuel Macron, when he lost his majority in the parliament. And now Sebastian de Kournui was immediately nominated. Normally,

Emmanuel Macron took his time to find a new prime minister. This time, I think he didn't consult much

because Sebastian Connolly was on the list

in the previous three nominations anyways.

...