French Prime Minister Michel Barnier is expected to resign on Thursday hours after being ousted in a no-confidence vote. Barnier’s government collapsed after MPs voted overwhelmingly in support of the motion against him. This is coming barely three months after he was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron. Barnier, a veteran politician who was formerly the European Union's Brexit negotiator, will be the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history after he hands his resignation. No French government had lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou's in 1962.
Barnier, a veteran politician who was formerly the European Union's Brexit negotiator, will be the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history after he hands in his resignation. No French government had lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou's in 1962.
The hard left and far right punished Barnier in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday evening for attempting to push an unpopular budget through an unruly hung parliament without a vote. The draft budget had sought 60 billion euros ($63 billion) in savings in a drive to shrink a gaping deficit. The budget, which Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally said was too harsh on working people.
Ahead of 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 need to look at the realities of our debt".
"I did not present almost exclusively difficult measures because I wanted to."
The development also further weakens the standing of President Emmanuel Macron, who precipitated the current crisis with an ill-fated decision to call a snap election ahead of the summer Paris Olympics.
Macron faces growing calls to resign, although he has a mandate until 2027 and cannot be pushed out. Still, the long-running political debacle has left him a diminished figure.
France now risks ending the year without a stable government or a 2025 budget, although the constitution allows special measures that would avert a U.S.-style government shutdown.
France's political turmoil will further weaken a European Union already reeling from the implosion of Germany's coalition government, and weeks before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
France now faces a period of serious political uncertainty that is already demoralising investors in French sovereign bonds and stocks. Earlier this week, France's borrowing costs briefly exceeded those of Greece, generally considered far more risky.
Any new prime minister would face the same challenges as Barnier in getting bills, including the 2025 budget, adopted by a divided parliament. There can be no new parliamentary election before July.
