| Ever since President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections last year, France has been stuck in rinse-repeat: A prime minister is named, cobbles together a coalition of convenience and is eventually toppled over unpopular budget cuts. The process has become so farcical that Macron’s last pick Sebastien Lecornu, France’s second prime minister in a month, led a cabinet for all of 14 hours before resigning after enraging allies on both left and right by rewarding the president’s loyalists with top jobs. With the far right and far left eager for fresh elections to capitalize on Macron’s plummeting popularity as well as the wedge issues of wealth taxes and pensions, the president is doing whatever it takes to avoid exactly that. Days of negotiations seem to have created space for getting a new government over the line, with its head due to be named later today. But the cost has been high: After Lecornu’s promise of more tax “justice” to pacify the left, now Macron’s flagship pension reform is on the block.  Sebastien Lecornu Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg The “suspension” of pension reform – floated by Elisabeth Borne, the very prime minister who helmed it in 2023 – would theoretically defuse tensions today by kicking it down the road to presidential elections in 2027. It would also be the biggest prize yet offered to the center-left, which would also have a lot to lose in an election. To preserve the status quo, everything has to change, as Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa once put it in “The Leopard.” But these are short-term decisions that can add up longer-term. Bloomberg Economics estimates that freezing the retirement age at its current level would cost about 0.3% of GDP over 2026-2027, at a time when France is trying to save the budgetary equivalent of 4% of GDP over five years. Fully reversing the reform once described as “essential” would be even costlier for a country whose debt-to-GDP ratio is well above the European average. And while it may smooth the path of whoever leads the next government, it’s increasingly clear the Macronian center is failing to hold. This week, two former prime ministers — Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe — made their break with the Macron era more official, with the former saying the president was behaving incomprehensibly and the latter saying he should go early. Whatever it takes to avoid a French election? We may get one regardless. France’s business elite is courting the center-left Socialist party, seen as an increasingly pivotal player in the country’s volatile political environment. Stellantis NV’s third-quarter deliveries climbed 13% on surging sales in North America, pointing to a recovery after the ailing carmaker worked down high inventories in the US. French markets have mostly recovered from the ructions of this week’s political drama. The Bank of France urged the European Union’s top markets watchdog to start supervising major crypto companies directly after the expansion of major players in the continent. Legrand SA, the world’s biggest maker of switches and plugs for homes and offices, was considered as an acquisition target by Switzerland’s ABB but a deal is currently not on the agenda. Alstom SA made its first leadership change in roughly a decade, naming aerospace executive Martin Sion as its new CEO. Monday: Bloomberg October France Economic Survey Tuesday: Bank of France Governor Villeroy speaks at Bloomberg Global Regulatory Forum in New York; Publicis, LVMH results Wednesday: Vinci results; French final September inflation Thursday: Pernod Ricard, EssilorLuxottica results The Michelin guide wants us to trust its global hotel ratings. But if government-run tourism boards pay for reviewers to come to their states and cities, should we?  Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club in Surfside, Florida, which has been designated two Michelin keys. Photographer: Four Seasons | 
