France The political crisis deepened after a vote of no confidence was passed in the government, ending the beleaguered minority coalition of the right-wing prime minister. Michael Barnier after only three months.
The no-confidence motion in the coalition of left-wing parties was supported by MPs from the anti-immigration Marine Le Pen, far-right, National Rally. A total of 331 legislators – a clear majority – decided on Wednesday night to bring down the government.
Barnier will have to resign as prime minister, given a warning before the vote France would be “inserted into the unknown.”
The imposed regime leaves President Emmanuel Macron against the worst political crisis presiding over two terms. It is uncertain how the 2025 calculation can be decided as France faces a growing public deficit, and above which Macron could nominate a prime minister.
Macron, whose second term as president runs until the spring of 2027, is not obliged to resign himself. Resigning himself, he called such a scenario “political fiction”. but the part on the left, and the far right, was called the exit.
Wednesday’s vote was the country’s first successful no-confidence vote since the overthrow of Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president. Barnier’s administration became the shortest of all the administrations of the French Fifth Republic, which began in 1958.
No new parliamentary elections can be called before August 2025, limiting Macron’s options with a deeply divided national assembly.
With Macron suddenly an ineffective election would be broken in Junethe French parliament was divided between three groups with no absolute majority. The left party received the majority of the votes, but the majority failed absolutely; Macron’s centrist group suffered losses but was still standing and Le Pen’s far-right National Socialists won seats but were held back by the power of the imperial vote from the left and center.
Barnier, the The EU’s former Brexit negotiatorHe was appointed in September after two months of political paralysis this summer.
Barnier’s main task, which proved his downfall, was the vote on the budget for 2025 in which he said he had started the French parliament with €60bn in tax increases and cuts. But after weeks of stalling over the budget, Barnier on Monday pushed through the social security bill, using article 49.3 of the constitution, which allows the government to pass laws without a vote in parliament. He was moved by no confidence in the movement of the left of society, and another on the right.
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Barnier’s minority coalition was essentially supported by Le Pen, who, although outside the government, had tried to appease Barnier’s unprecedentedly powerful role by preventing the party from joining the no-confidence vote. Barnier had dealt directly with her, culminating in the demands of her budget.
But Le Pen pulled the trigger, saying Barnier’s budget was a danger to the country. He said the French people expected the appointment of Barnier to calm the government’s institutions and provide “a vision for the country”. But, he says, it was a disaster.
Le Pen wrote on social media that “the initial continuation of Emmanuel Macron” by following Barnier, who led the coalition dominated by the right and the center, “could fail”. He said he was “protecting and defending” his party’s 11 million voters, who he said were very concerned about the living wage. Jean-Philippe Tanguy, MP for National Rally, said:[Having] “No budget is better than the budget itself, which says a lot about how bad it is.”
If parliament does not pass the budget by December 20, the government can propose emergency legislation that would impose limits on spending and tax provisions from 2024, pending the arrival of a new government and a new 2025 budget bill.
Savings through spending cuts and tax rises set by Barnier will be shallow.
Le Pen’s party said families would be better off in this scenario. Barnier strongly contested this, saying that the collapse of the government would bring “very difficult and turbulent economic conditions”. Barnier’s ministers said that more people would end up paying tax or additional tax if the thresholds could not be adjusted to inflation. Labor Minister, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet said “sadness and anxiety” about the future after the collapse of the government.
The head of the parliament’s finance committee, Eric Coquerel, a member of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Insoumise party of the left-wing La France party, said the vote was a sign of “no confidence” and felt “it helped the majority of the French people”. . Barnier said he was “terrified” when he said there would be “financial and economic chaos” if the government fell. Mélenchon, who is not currently an MP, was in parliament to give evidence on what he called a “historic day”.
The left-wing society had no confidence in the movement that contained the far-right trend. It should be noted that despite the number of French citizens choosing to block the far right in June’s parliamentary elections, Barnier still “gave in to his lowest obsessions” – a reference to his anti-immigration stance. But Le Pen’s party said it would still vote for a no-confidence motion as a key issue to topple the government.
The head of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, who said he is now prime minister on the left, said Macron should talk to the French people. “How can the French be left in this uncertainty just before Christmas?” Faure told Le Monde.