France could hold snap elections again amid deadlock and calls for Emmanuel Macron's resignation

By Bridget Rollason and Daniel Pannett, ABC News

France is stuck in a cycle of political chaos, with no clear end in sight.

As of this week, the world's seventh-largest economy is being run by its fifth prime minister in two years, after yet another leader was cast aside.

The situation has sparked unrest across the country. On Wednesday, 500 people were arrested in tense anti-government protests held in multiple locations.

It has left the country's veteran President Emmanuel Macron under enormous pressure.

In France's political system, presidents and PMs are elected separately.

The president controls foreign affairs and is the commander-in-chief of the military, and appoints a prime minister.

The PM and their government deals with fiscal policy and domestic issues.

Macron is widely known on the international stage, and has held his role since 2017.

But at home, French journalist and political commentator Thierry Arnaud said many voters were calling for his resignation.

"He's a very weakened president with an approval rating of 15 percent, which is abysmal," he said.

"When you ask the French people in opinion polls 'who is responsible for the current mess?', they would tell you, Macron is.

"When you ask them what the solution is, the majority will tell you he has to resign and allow for a new president to find a new way forward."

While France held Parliamentary elections last year, the next presidential ballot isn't due to happen until 2027.

Some people have had enough.

A grassroots protest movement, named Let's Block Everything, has this week been rallying against the political class and proposed budget cuts.

It wreaked havoc across the country. About 80,000 police were deployed to Paris and other cities as some protesters clashed with officers, blocked roads, and lit fires.

But there were peaceful demonstrations too, young people took to the streets in reaction to the deepening inequality in France blamed on Macron's policies to curb the country's debt, by freezing welfare benefits and cutting healthcare.

"We are just not happy the state's money is not going to our education, it's not going to our public services and it's not going to our health," Rya, an 18-year-old at the Paris demonstration, told the ABC.

"This government has been implementing austerity measures that have made it more difficult for people to survive and it's unfair because we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and people are getting poorer."

Another in attendance, Gunien, said he was protesting because he felt the country's wealth divide was getting too big.

"Nothing ever changes. I'm quite tired of the situation," he said.

"At the end of the day it comes back to Macron and he needs to recognise that."

Left, right both despise Macron

Macron has been on shaky ground since his surprise decision to call a snap legislative election last year.

Instead of shoring up support for his centrist Ensemble coalition, it was dominated by the left-wing New Popular Front group and right-wing party National Rally, neither of whom claimed a clear majority.

Centrist prime minister François Bayrou was ousted this week, the second leader in the past nine months to lose the top job via a no-confidence vote.

He had tried to push through about €44 billion (NZ$86 billion) in cuts as part of an austerity budget to curb the country's debt, which was earlier this year estimated to be more than €3.3t (NZ$6.4t), or about 115 percent of the country's GDP.

European Union guidelines say member states should have a national debt of no more than 60 percent of its GDP.

Macron's decision to replace Bayrou with another of his close allies, Sébastien Lecornu, has only fuelled protesters.

"It's basically a f*** you to the people," Daniele Obono, the deputy leader of left-wing party La France Insoumise - which is part of the New Popular Front coalition - told the ABC.

"Can you imagine a year ago, the president's party was massively rejected by the people in an election, then he just decided to pick a prime minister from a party that came in fourth.

"We have been in instability for the last two, three and four years now and we have to stop with the chaos, stop with Macron."

Despising Macron comes from both sides of the political spectrum.

For its part, National Rally has made it clear it's preparing for the possibility of more chaos.

The party's president Jordan Bardella this month announced: "We can and must be ready for anything, including a return to the ballot box with a dissolution of the National Assembly."

He said the party had already chosen 85 percent of its candidates.

At last year's snap elections, the party had been rated a chance to win government.

While it increased its seats in the Parliament to 142, it is less than half of what's required to form a majority.

Arnaud said it was hard to see an end to the turmoil, with the left already vowing to hold a no confidence vote in the new prime minister when Parliament returns.

As Macron runs out of options, he could be left with no choice but to call another election, which would almost certainly not end in his favour.

"It's not given that the far right is going to get an outright majority, but they will be the leading force, that is for sure," Arnaud said.

- ABC News