France’s government collapses – could it trigger the next euro crisis?

France’s government has toppled after losing a vote of no-confidence, plunging the euro zone’s second-largest economy into turmoil. Is this 2012 all over again and should Europe be worried?

Michel Barnier, France's prime minister, speaks during a no-confidence debate at the National Assembly in Paris
(Image credit: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Europe once again stands at the edge of the precipice, staring into the abyss below,” says Jeremy Warner in The Telegraph. The 2009-2012 eurozone crisis was centred on “tiny” Greece – just think what debt problems in a major economy such as France could do to the single currency.

French prime minister Michel Barnier’s three-month-old minority government has collapsed after being ousted in a vote of no-confidence on 4 December, following which Barnier resigned. Barnier’s “fragile” administration had been trying to close a fiscal deficit of 6.1% of GDP with €60billion in spending cuts and tax hikes, says Liz Alderman in The New York Times.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.