TRANSCRIPT:
France's parliament has voted to oust the country's Prime Minister, Francois Bayrou, who has lost a confidence motion and is expected to tender his resignation.
It comes as part of the opposition party's plan to bring down the government in the face of increasing national debt and a deepening political crisis.
The 74-year-old, who has been Prime Minister since December last year, addressed parliament shortly before politicians voted to oust him.
He gambled the parliament would back his view that the country must slash public spending to repair its debts.
"The government is proposing a plan to the country, a debt reduction plan, so that France can escape in a few years the inexorable tide of debt that overwhelms it. In four years, which is a reasonable timeframe in the life of a country and its inhabitants, it's not that we will no longer have debt, but our debt will no longer increase. And here's the plan: to reach the threshold of three per cent of annual public deficits by 2029, a threshold beyond which the debt no longer increases."
Mr Bayrou was instead ousted overwhelmingly in a 364-194 vote against him.
French President Emmanuel Macron's office says he will appoint a successor in the next few days.
It's the fifth time Mr Macron has had to find a new Prime Minister in two years.
French MP and President of the ultra-conservative National Rally, Marine Le Pen, addressed the National Assembly.
"Leaders of both the right and the left, you are guilty. You cannot cry in front of the cameras about the consequences of the misdeeds you have committed yourselves. It is indeed a curious way of waiving the debts for which you are accountable, the deficits for which you are responsible, the general collapse for which you are guilty, in order to seek the confidence of Parliament."
There have also been calls for the President to resign following the government's collapse.
Opposition parties are calling for new elections, as liberal politicians claim the exit of Mr Bayrou is a victory.
French MP and president of France Unbowed, Mathilde Panot spoke after the no-confidence vote.
"Bayrou wanted a moment of truth and I believe he got it. But what the result shows, beyond even Bayrou's government, is the sham of Macron’s people that is coming to light. Realise that only a third of the hemicycle gave its confidence to the Prime Minister. This means that Macron's policy for the rich, in the service of the rich and of social war against the people received two-thirds of unfavourable votes in the hemicycle."
She says they don't want yet another Prime Minister to continue the same policy.
The result marks a new crisis for Europe’s second-largest economy.
In the country's province of Clermont-Ferrand, anti-government protesters are celebrating the ouster of Mr Bayrou in front of a local town hall.
Protestor Alan Petit is among those calling for Mr Macron to be unseated.
"Now that the change of the prime minister is a done deal, they need to get rid of what's higher up. That's a message for Macron."
Orpheline Barbarine is a 31-year-old Agricultural Engineer who was at the protest.
She is advocating change for women in the country.
"Politics in France today is completely unpredictable, but we are here to ensure that women are not forgotten. Women make up 52 per cent of the population, yet one woman is killed every three days. So until that changes and we are heard, we will be here, regardless of the government's fate."
French President Macron, who has also been leading diplomatic efforts internationally to end Russia's war on Ukraine, now faces one of the most critical domestic decisions of his presidency over who to appoint as prime minister.
