FRENCH Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a last-ditch effort today to save his job, as he was toppled in a confidence vote.

More than 350 lawmakers refused to back his plans to curb France’s debts that he said are “submerging us."

French President Emmanuel Macron will now be forced to choose another prime minister or call another general election.

In an impassioned speech to the National Assembly, the right-wing prime minister insisted that France’s spiralling public deficit and mounting debts were threatening the future of the country.

He said state debts will weigh on future generations, leave France vulnerable to foreign creditors and undermine its cherished social safety nets if not brought under control.

“Our country works, thinks it’s getting richer but keeps getting poorer,” Mr Bayrou said, defiantly pausing for sips of water when hecklers on the legislative benches tried drowning him out.

The demise of Mr Bayrou’s short-lived premiership — he was appointed in December — will mean a prolonged legislative deadlock for France as it wrestles with pressing challenges, including budget difficulties and, internationally, wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the shifting United States priorities of President Donald Trump.

As president, Mr Macron will continue to hold substantial powers over foreign policy and European affairs and remain the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. But domestically, his ambitions are increasingly facing ruin, with his inability to find government stability in the legislature stacked with opponents.

Mr Bayrou, France’s third prime minister in 12 months, warned lawmakers: “You have the power to bring down the government but you don't have the power to erase reality.”

Responding to the prime minister, the Green Party’s Cyrielle Chatelain and the Socialist Party’s Boris Vallaud called on President Macron to name a new prime minister from the left-wing New Popular Front once Mr Bayrou was removed.

Mr Vallaud said: “It is now up to the left, which came out on top (in last year’s legislative elections) to govern.”

But Laurent Wauquiez from the right-wing Republicans said his party “will never accept a government that includes members of France Unbowed and Socialist lawmakers.”

Arguing that sharp cuts are needed to repair public finances, Mr Bayrou has proposed to cut €44 billion (£38bn) in spending in 2026, after France’s deficit hit 5.8 per cent of gross domestic product last year, way above the official European Union target of 3 per cent.