Paris:
The government in France collapsed on Wednesday after lawmakers of both left and right wings joined forces to push a no-confidence against the country’s Prime Minister Michel Barnier, throwing the European Union’s second-biggest economic power deeper into chaos that threatens to exacerbate its budgetary and looming economic crises.
The Prime Minister addressed the nation just before the vote, calling it an honour to have served France and its people with dignity. He’d been on the job for just two months and 29 days. With the vote of confidence against him, Mr Barnie will now have to tender his resignation and that of his government to President Emmanuel Macron, making his minority government’s tenure the shortest lived in France’s Fifth Republic beginning in 1958.
As per French media reports, he is expected to do so on Thursday morning. The president will then address the nation at 1900 GMT, the Elysee Palace said.
Rise and Fall Of Michel Barnier
Michel Barnier’s government fell after 331 deputies voted against him, making him the shortest-serving Prime Minister in modern French political history. Only 288 votes were needed to pass the no-confidence motion in the 577-member chamber. It was the first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.
In France, the President nominates prime ministers. However, lawmakers can reject his picks at any time by passing a no-confidence vote, like in the case of Barnier. National Assembly, the French parliament’s lower house, is almost equally divided between the far right, a loosely united left-wing, centrists including Macron’s allies, and a few candidates who please all three factions, according to a report by Vox.
Though not a popular leader, Mr Barnier was seen as a capable choice after the Prime Minister’s post following surprise elections this past summer. However, he was met with challenges while trying to lead a government without a majority. He angered lawmakers on both the right and left after he attempted to push through a 2025 national budget without a vote in the lower house of parliament. Amid a standoff over the social security financing bill, France’s far-right party and its left-wing alliance each put forward no-confidence motions against him.
Passage of No Confidence Vote
The successful vote means President Macron will have to find a new Prime Minister to replace Mr Barnier, which doesn’t seem to be an easy affair. A similar situation happened once before in 1962, but the particular situation was dealt with by calling early legislative elections.
However, President Macron doesn’t have that choice as he has already called called early poll last June. This means he can’t call new ones until next July, because under the French Constitution, the National Assembly must remain in place for a minimum of one year.
So for the moment, France has no government. However, it will have caretaker ministers in place, appointed by the President. Amid limited options given the dysfunction in the National Assembly, Emmanuel Macron needs to appoint a new prime minister quickly to pass the government’s budget and, hopefully, prevent an economic crisis from engulfing France.
A source close to Macron told news agency AFP that the president, who has taken time with appointments in the past, has “no choice” but to name the new premier within 24 hours.
Call For Emmanuel Macron’s Resignation
France’s hard left on Wednesday urged President Emmanuel Macron to resign and hold early presidential elections after lawmakers voted to oust the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
“We are now calling on Macron to go,” Mathilde Panot, the head of the parliamentary faction of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party told reporters, urging “early presidential elections” to solve a deepening political crisis.
But taking care not to crow over the government’s fall, Le Pen said in a television interview that her party — once a new premier is appointed — “would let them work” and help create a “budget that is acceptable for everyone”.
Laurent Wauquiez, the head of right-wing deputies in parliament, said the far right and hard left bore the responsibility for a no-confidence vote that would “plunge the country into instability”.
Macron, however, has rejected calls to resign.
Growing Crisis In France
With markets nervous and France bracing for public-sector strikes against the threat of cutbacks, action that will shut schools and hit air and rail traffic, there is a growing sense of crisis. The unions have called for civil servants, including teachers and air-traffic controllers, to strike on Thursday over separate cost-cutting measures.
Moreover, Macron is due to host a major international event on Saturday, with the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire, with guests including Donald Trump on his first foreign trip since he was elected to be the next US president.
France also risks ending the year without a stable government or a 2025 budget, although the constitution allows special measures that would avert a US-style government shutdown.
Any new prime minister appointed by the President would face the same challenges as Barnier in getting bills, including the 2025 budget, adopted by a divided parliament. Macron could alternatively ask Barnier and his ministers to stay on in a caretaker capacity while he takes time to identify a prime minister able to attract sufficient cross-party support to pass legislation.
A caretaker government could either propose emergency legislation to roll the tax-and-spend provisions in the 2024 budget into next year or invoke special powers to pass the draft 2025 budget by decree – though jurists say this is a legal grey area and the political cost would be huge.
This could potentially cause further concerns in markets, which are already unnerving investors in French sovereign bonds and stocks. Earlier this week, France’s borrowing costs briefly exceeded those of Greece, generally considered far more risky.
France’s political turmoil also threatens to weaken a European Union already reeling from the implosion of Germany’s coalition government, weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The country’s outgoing defence minister Sebastien Lecornu warned the turmoil could impact French support for Ukraine.
