Bayrou would be the third prime minister to lose the post in a year, leaving the president in a difficult political position and an impossible vacancy to fill

in Paris

What adds even more to the unsettled situation in France is there is a protest expected to take place next week known as Block Everything, which could mean roads and businesses barricaded amid street demonstrations, which will be followed by union-led hospital and rail strikes in coming weeks.

There’s a strong anger at not being listened to, and a feeling that politics is going nowhere.

“There is something in the general atmosphere, which is not just French, but almost global: a kind of cold anger because people see an ultra-free-market capitalist system crushing people and making their life all about survival.

There’s a sense of injustice and that something is wrong with the system.”