Whichever government comes in next will face enormous pressure to reduce the government’s deficit, which has greatly increased since the pandemic. The country also faces other economic challenges, including falling consumer confidence and slower growth.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier's three-month-old minority government was toppled on Wednesday in a no-confidence motion supported by left-wing and far-right opposition lawmakers. Marine Le Pen's far-right nationalists and a leftist alliance voted together to oust the government.

French lawmakers passed a no-confidence vote against the government on Wednesday, throwing the European Union's second-biggest economic power deeper into a crisis that threatens its capacity to legislate and tame a massive budget deficit.