The trap is closing in on French Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his government. The censure motion filed by the far-left and the national right-wing will likely put an end to Barnier’s ambitions of passing a 2025 budget for France.

Psychological misjudgments regarding Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Rassemblement National, and a budget proposal featuring a massive tax increase in a country already considered the global champion of taxation, have hastened the downfall of what might become the most short-lived government in the Fifth French Republic—barring a political miracle. Barnier is unlikely to remain at Matignon (the French Prime Minister’s residence) by next week.

Emmanuel Macron, currently on a state visit to Saudi Arabia, will soon have to reckon with the consequences of this political failure. The dissolution of the National Assembly last July, triggered by Macron himself, has become a slow-acting poison with no political antidote. No party holds a majority in France. While Macron can appoint a new Prime Minister, any new government would be unlikely to last long.

Macron now finds himself on the front lines. Voices on both the right and the left are calling for his departure from the Élysée. Some argue that a presidential resignation would plunge the country into an even deeper political crisis. Others suggest that resignation does not align with Macron’s psychological profile and that such a move would immediately destabilize France's political institutions.

Macron is in a deadlock. The country is under close scrutiny by financial markets. The euro is weakening against the dollar, French borrowing rates have surpassed those of Spain and Portugal, and the gap with Germany—despite its own economic woes—continues to widen.

France is holding its breath. “The cauldron is boiling,” explains Brice Tinturier of Ipsos.

Two French political leaders, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen, are betting on an early presidential election. But are personal political agendas taking precedence over the economic, financial, and social future of the country? French voters have lost trust and are increasingly concerned about their future. Indeed, the "cauldron is boiling" in France.