French government faces no-confidence vote on Wednesday
PM Michel Barnier tells MPs they face ‘moment of truth’ after left and right lodge motions censuring governmentThe French government appears likely to fall this week after leftwing and far-right parties lodged motions of no confidence in response to the prime minister’s decision to push through a belt-tightening budget without a vote.
If passed by MPs, the motions, which will be put to a vote in the national assembly on Wednesday, will bring down the government and force Michel Barnier’s resignation after only two and a half months.
The New Popular Front (NFP), a leftwing coalition that includes the Socialists, Greens, hard left France Unbowed and the Communist party, had already warned it would put forward a motion to censure the government if it used the controversial “49.3” constitutional clause to force through the social security legislation.
On Monday, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally (RN) increased the pressure on the government by announcing that her party was also lodging a no-confidence motion.
“The French have had enough,” she told reporters in parliament. “Maybe [voters] thought with Michel Barnier things would get better, but it got even worse.”
Together, the NFP and the RN have enough MPs to topple the government – the first time a French government has been dispatched in such a way since 1962. It would leave both the EU’s traditional powerhouses, France and Germany, in political flux just weeks ahead of Donald Trump re-entering the White House.
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French government faces no-confidence vote on Wednesday
PM Michel Barnier tells MPs they face ‘moment of truth’ after left and right lodge motions censuring government
