Uncertainty is expected to plague Paris in 2025, as Macron admits snap elections destabilized France

As France enters the new year, there's little hope that the political and economic uncertainty that's been plaguing the euro zone's second-largest economy for months will disappear in 2025.

France was plunged into a political crisis last summer when snap parliamentary elections, called by President Emmanuel Macron, failed to produce a decisive result, with both far-left and far-right parties claiming victory in the polls.

Amid infighting over who should govern, Macron installed a centrist, conservative government which proved to be short-lived, with arguments over France's 2025 budget sowing the seeds of its downfall — at the hands of the far left and far right — in a confidence vote in December.

A new minority government is now in place, but it faces the same challenges as before — how to get political rivals in France's National Assembly to agree to spending and taxation plans for 2025 that reduce France's budget deficit, forecast to hit 6.1% in 2024, and debt pile of 112% of gross domestic product, with both far above EU rules.

France's political debacle has continued to rattle financial markets and raise concerns among economists: Credit ratings agency Moody's downgraded France's credit rating last month, warning that political fragmentation was "more likely to impede meaningful fiscal consolidation" and that the country's public finances will be "substantially weakened over the coming years." While most European markets managed to eke out gains in 2024, France's CAC 40, beleaguered by political turbulence, fell 2.2% over the year.

Though Macron has defied calls for his resignation and refused to hold early presidential elections, he appeared to admit on Tuesday that his decision to hold a snap vote last year had created