France sees week of turmoil with protests, new PM and credit rating downgrade

It’s been a turbulent week in France. On Monday, François Bayrou lost his job as prime minister after calling for a confidence vote. He was trying to get his fellow lawmakers to pass an austerity budget. On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron named one of his closest allies, Sébastian Lecornu, to become France’s new premier. On Wednesday, a wave of nationwide protests dubbed “Block Everything” fell short of organisers’ expectations. On Thursday, a French parliamentary report recommended banning the social media app TikTok for under-15s. And on Friday, France saw its sovereign credit score downgraded by the ratings agency Fitch.