French parliament votes no confidence in Macron’s PM

ER Editor: At last! French govt. collapse has been been playing out as a foregone conclusion for quite some time. Timed nicely for the re-opening of Notre Dame this weekend and Trump’s visit. Nothing is coincidental.

There were shenanigans around the French elections, turning the polls to the left before the end of the voting day. Le Pen should have won in a normal world; the Left, an effortlessly put-together coalition of 4 parties, won and then became a sh**show of incompetence and dissension all for public consumption. Now Le Pen gets to make the house of cards fall for a theatrically timed moment this weekend.

There is more to know about Le Pen and her family, but we cannot prove it yet.

French Government Falls As PM Barnier Loses Confidence Vote

And Politico.eu —

French government collapse turns the screws on Macron

PARIS — The collapse of France’s government on Wednesday night means it now finally falls to President Emmanuel Macron to step up and confront a snowballing political and economic crisis that risks sending shock waves across the eurozone.

After a heated debate in the National Assembly — marked by raucous jeers and boos — 331 of France’s 577 lawmakers voted to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a vote of no confidence after he tried to force through an austere budget to fix the country’s yawning deficits.

Once he formally resigns, Barnier will become the shortest-lived prime minister in the history of the modern French republic and the first to be booted out by parliament since 1962.

The political chaos led a growing number of lawmakers to demand the resignation of Macron, whose term lasts until 2027. That would be an almost-unprecedented move in modern French politics. Macron’s office said the president will address the political impasse in a speech on Thursday at 8 p.m.

Speaking before the vote, far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Macron would “sacrifice the fate of France because of his vanity” if he failed to step aside.

“Emmanuel Macron has attacked the foundation walls of the nation for the past seven years,” Le Pen said, earning a round of applause from her troops as they tried to drown out the boos from Barnier’s allies. “He alone can pull the country out of the rut it’s in [with his resignation].”

Mathilde Panot of the hard-left France Unbowed party said Wednesday’s vote was a defeat for “all of Emmanuel Macron’s policies.”

We can agree with Barnier’s assessment here —

“This [National] Assembly is impossible,” Barnier told his ministers gathered in the Matignon palace after the vote, according to a participant there who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with French protocol. “I sincerely wish the next team the best of luck.”

In the immediate term, France must prepare for uncharted territory.

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Michel Barnier is the first prime minister since 1962 to lose a no-confidence vote

RT

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has lost a no-confidence vote in parliament, as lawmakers on both the left and the right united to oust him.

A no-confidence motion requires 288 votes in the National Assembly. Wednesday evening’s motion received 331 votes, with the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) and the right-wing National Rally (RN) uniting in opposition to the minority cabinet imposed by President Emmanuel Macron.

French parliament votes no confidence in Macron’s PM

“I don’t consider it a victory,” RN’s Marine Le Pen told TF1 after the vote. “We made the choice we made to protect the French people.”

“It was not done lightly,” Le Pen added. “There was no other solution.”

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of NPF’s largest party, said that the outcome was “inevitable” and called for Macron’s resignation.

“Even with a Barnier every three months, Macron will not last three years,” he said on X. The French president has ruled out resigning, however. (ER: Doing a Trudeau, it would seem.)

Macron appointed Barnier in September, drawing the ire of NPF. The left-wing coalition had won the most seats in the parliament in this summer’s snap elections, as part of a pact with the president to sideline RN. But Macron then turned around and snubbed NPF in favor of a minority cabinet that relied on the tacit support of RN. (ER: And that is how this piece of theatre has worked since the election.)

Things came to a head over the social security budget proposal, in which Barnier tried to cut spending by €40 billion ($41.87 billion) and to raise €20 billion in taxes to deal with a massive deficit. RN threatened a no-confidence vote unless the cabinet made a number of concessions to its “red lines.”

Le Pen accused the prime minister of being “extremely closed-minded and sectarian” in the budget talks and gave Barnier a deadline to meet RN’s demands, which Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin rejected.

There have been almost 150 no-confidence motions since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958. Prior to Wednesday, only one government had ever been ousted – Georges Pompidou’s, in October 1962.

Barnier is likely to stay on as a caretaker PM until Macron can appoint a replacement. It took the French president nearly two months to do so after July’s parliamentary election. Another vote is not an option because the French constitution forbids it until at least a year has passed.

Source

Featured image source, Michel Barnier: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/dec/04/france-government-vote-no-confidence-barnier-lepen-europe-live

Featured image source, Marine Le Pen: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/france-government-no-confidence-vote-political-crisis-michel-barnier-4787136

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Published to UK Reloaded from EuropeReloaded.com

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