Barnier downfall threatens to set a pattern for what lies ahead

But just as the country reverts to being more of a parliamentary system, the Assembly itself has proved incapable of action.

As more than one commentator has pointed out, France – with its monarchical instincts and top-down conception of power – has never developed a culture of compromise.

So the three blocs in the Assembly today – installed by the voters after Macron’s dissolution in June – have proved incapable of creating a constructive environment for government.

As the veteran journalist Eric Brunet said after viewing the debate this evening on BFMTV: “What we have just seen is jaw-droppingly French.

“No pragmatism. Just ideology. All the speeches were about values, about extremes. Our whole discourse is disconnected from reality. It is typically, singularly French.”

Some see it as the culmination of years of France refusing to face economic reality – governments of all colours having given way to calls for ever-growing public spending. The result is a deficit and a debt which can only be addressed by cuts, which no government can ever get passed.

According to Nicolas Beytout, of the pro-business L’Opinion newspaper, this is the start of a series of crises which – counterintuitively – the country actually needs. Because only by being brought face-to-face with the economic abyss, will voters, parties – the country – accept the tough decisions that lie ahead.

Beytout predicts that any new prime minister will face the same problems as Barnier, and like him fail.

“A new government needs time, which it won’t have. It needs a majority, which it won’t have. And it needs the determination to see through the necessary reduction in state spending – which it won’t have.

“So I expect to see several more motions of censure, and several more falls of government – before eventually we start to wake up.”