French Prime Minister Michel Barnier is expected to tender his resignation today, hours after being handed a no-confidence vote.
Barnier’s government fell after MPs voted overwhelmingly in favor of a motion against him, just three months after he was elected by President Emmanuel Macron.
The prime minister is likely to remain caretaker while Macron chooses a successor, a process that could take weeks.
Last night’s vote was the first time a French government has been voted down by parliament in more than 60 years.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right and the left-wing New Popular Front both joined forces to denounce Barnier’s government after the former Brexit negotiator used special powers to force through his budget without a vote.
331 voted in favor of the motion, well above the 288 required for it to pass.
Barnier has now been forced to tender his government’s resignation, and the budget that caused his downfall has been automatically withdrawn.
Macron, who returned to France following a state visit to Saudi Arabia, will deliver a televised address to the nation on Thursday evening.
The president is constitutionally unaffected by Barnier’s resignation. But many opposition politicians are increasingly calling for him to resign and call early presidential elections – something Macron has insisted is not on the cards.
The left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), which won the majority of seats in the parliamentary elections, had earlier criticized it. Macron’s decision to appoint centrist Barnier as prime minister over his candidate.
On the side National Rally (RN)saw Barnier’s budget – which includes €60bn (£49bn) in deficit reduction – as unacceptable.
Marine Le Pen, RN leader, said the budget was “poisonous for the French”.
Before the vote, Barnier told the National Assembly that voting him out of office would not solve the country’s financial problems.
“We have reached a moment of truth, of responsibility,” he said, adding that “we must look at the facts of our debt”.
“I didn’t introduce tough measures just because I wanted to.”
In an interview with the French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday, Le Pen said there was no other solution but to remove Barnier.
Asked about the hopes of the French president, he replied: “I am not asking for the resignation of Emmanuel Macron.”
Many of his allies, however, are increasingly coming forward in hopes of forcing him to resign. RN consultant Philippe Olivier told Le Monde that the president was “the fallen king of the Republic, walking with his shirt open and a rope around his neck until the next dissolution. [of parliament]”.
No new parliamentary elections can be held until July, so the stalemate in the Assembly – where no party can hope to have a working majority – will continue.
Source link
