THE reaction across France to the resignation of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, and the fall of his austerity government following the “no-confidence” vote in the National Assembly, is one of celebration and escalation of the industrial struggle for a progressive alternative.

The clear need is for the renewal of a united front of anti-neoliberal and anti-fascist parties, seen universally as capable of forming a government.

The likely next step is that President Emmanuel Macron — who has already prior to the vote declared that he intends to serve out his period of office to 2027 — will simply try to replace Bayrou with another opportunist centrist politician, just as Bayrou himself replaced Michel Barnier less than a year ago, after that government was also ousted.

Macron is likely to select a new PM from the opportunist centre ground, perhaps from the neoliberals populating the Socialist Party, to form a new government. In the meantime — and it could be quite a time — Bayrou remains as caretaker.

Clearly this cynical manipulation is unacceptable to the French people.

A “grassroots” social-media-organised movement with the energising name of “Bloquons Tout!” (Let’s Block Everything!) has called for public celebrations outside official buildings across France of September to mark the defeat of Bayrou’s proposed austerity budget of €44 billion public spending cuts and reduced public holidays, and to his consequent ignominious dismissal… and to demand fundamental change.

Bloquons Tout apparently has many of its roots in the “gillet jaune” (yellow vest) movement, and in the ongoing French farmers’ actions against both government and monopoly food retailers.

An indication of widespread community support for the farmers’ actions in recent years has been  the practice of turning upside down the road signs indicating the name of towns or villages — an action supported by many mayors and local councils.

Now Bloquons Tout aim to turn “le monde l’envers” (“the world upside down”) as advocated by the Levellers in England 400 years ago.

Of course, loose movements without structure can be very unpredictable. At first Bloquons Tout suffered some attention and attempted manipulation by the ultra-right National Rally, but has now a much firmer base of support in the left and the unions, with the Communist Party, Jean-Luc Melenchon’s France Insoumise (France Unbowed), and the CGT — the biggest of the trade union federations — all showing supportive interest.

But spontaneous and also more carefully organised public celebration and demonstrations — vitally important as they are — will not be enough to consolidate the victory gained so far.

The deciding factors are and will be the role of the trade unions and the regeneration of a United Front — expressed in the Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front) and its success in last year’s National Assembly elections.

These are key to the credibility and sustained support for a future left government — a future government which is already under attack from the French state and media.

The two biggest trade union federations — the overtly socialist CGT and  Force Ouvriere — are joined by the “reformist” UNSA Mobilite, and the management union CFE-CGC in organising “a massive day of strikes and demonstrations” on September 18, with strong public support, and  much more to come.

The need and conditions for a united front of working-class organisations are clear — but things are never easy. The New Popular Front, which won the last National Assembly elections, was designed to successfully  stop the fascist and far-right candidate of the National Rally in the last election. It had a slogan, “Unity now! And we’ll argue differences later.” That argument has taken place and continues.

As well as the Communist Party and the Greens, the NPF contained both the neoliberals and reformists of the Socialist Party and the militant leftists and radicals of France Insoumise in an anti-fascist alliance — difficult to maintain when struggling to deal with the demands of developing policy for government.

The CP is struggling to maintain NPF in some form, and is looking at further possible alliances with all or some of the NPF partners — and possibly others.

The future is by no means sure of certain, other than the certainty of economic and political struggle. But for today and the coming week “Bye bye, Bayrou” celebrations and massive strike action across France are the immediate next steps.