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France in political crisis after no-confidence vote topples government
Minority coalition of PM Michel Barnier falls after three months, the shortest of any administration of France’s Fifth Republic
www.theguardian.com
France has been plunged into political crisis after a no-confidence vote brought down the government, ending the beleaguered minority coalition of the right-wing prime minister Michel Barnier after only three months.
Prime Minister Barnier
The no-confidence motion brought by an alliance of left-wing parties was supported by MPs from Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, far-right, National Rally. A total of 331 lawmakers — a clear majority — voted on Wednesday night to bring down the government.
Le Pen
Barnier will have to resign as prime minister, having warned before the vote that France would be 'plunged into the unknown'.
The toppling of the government leaves the president, Emmanuel Macron, facing the worst political crisis of his two terms as president. There is uncertainty over how a 2025 budget can be decided as France faces a growing public deficit, and over whom Macron could appoint as prime minister.
Macron, whose second term as president runs until spring 2027, is not obliged to stand down himself. He has ruled out resigning, calling such a scenario 'political fiction'. But part of the left and far right called for his exit.
Wednesday’s vote was the country’s first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president. The lifespan of Barnier’s government became the shortest of any administration of France’s Fifth Republic, which began in 1958.
No new parliament elections can be called before July 2025, narrowing Macron’s options faced with a deeply divided national assembly.
President Macron
Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, was appointed by Macron in September after two months of political paralysis this summer.
Barnier’s key task, which proved his downfall, was to vote through a budget for 2025 in which he said he would begin to tackle France’s deficit with €60bn in tax increases and spending cuts. But after weeks of standoff over the budget, Barnier on Monday pushed through a social security financing bill, using article 49.3 of the constitution, which allows a government to force through legislation without a vote in parliament. This sparked a no-confidence motion brought by the left alliance, and another brought by the far right.
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