The government of France has fallen for the second time this year, as a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Michel Barnier was passed by the National Assembly on Wednesday, giving the former Eurocrat the ignominious distinction of being the shortest tenured prime minister in modern French history.
Just 91 days after being installed in the Hôtel Matignon by President Macron, Michel Barnier saw his government collapse on Wednesday, as Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally (RN) party joined onto a censure motion to dethrone the government launched by the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) bloc, Le Figaro reports.
While Le Pen and her faction gave Barnier’s government benefit of the doubt support following July’s snap legislative elections, in which the National Assembly was left in a three-way split between the leftist NFP, the National Rally, and neo-liberal Macronists, Prime Minister Barnier’s move on Monday to invoke a constitutional loophole in an attempt to push through effective cuts to social security payments to seniors without a vote in the parliament, saw Le Pen revoke her support from the government and announce her support for the NFP’s no confidence vote.
The motion passed the National Assembly on Wednesday as 331 MPs voted in favour of collapsing the government, far surpassing the 289 needed to pass. It marks the first time since 1962 that a government in Paris was ousted by parliamentary vote. Having only served 91 days in the post, former Eurocrat and top Brexit villain Barnier now owns the title for the least time spent as prime minister, behind Pierre Bérégovoy at 362 days, Maurice Couve de Murville at 345 days, Edith Cresson at 322 days, former Macron PM Gabriel Attal whose reign ended at 240 days earlier this year, and Bernard Cazeneuve at 161 days.
In his final speech in front of the National Assembly on Wednesday ahead of his fait accompli removal, Barnier said: “This is reality. I tried to confront it by presenting difficult financial texts. I would have preferred to distribute money, even if we don’t have any. But this reality remains there, it will not disappear by the magic of a motion of censure. This reality will be remembered by any government whatever it may be.”
The collapse of the French government, just weeks after the German coalition government broke down, has left a power vacuum in the heart of the EU. Going forward, President Macron, who returned today from a trip to Saudi Arabia, will have limited options in steering the French state, given a constitutional prohibition on him calling for fresh parliamentary elections until midway through next year and his refusal to resign from the presidency, which would spark a national election.
It is conceivable that Macron could attempt to merely re-instate Barnier, however, the budgetary issues would remain and barring significant concessions, a second Barnier premiership would likely face similar ends to the first. He could also seek a replacement from the so-called centre-right Les Républicains party from which Barnier hailed, however, it is unclear if any capable hand would be willing to lift up the poison chalice that the PM post has become.
Alternatively, Macron could seek to appoint an Italian-style technocratic government staffed with bureaucrats and “experts”, though such an option has never been attempted in modern France. Meanwhile, the NFP bloc, which claims to have won the last election despite securing far fewer votes than the RN, has made noise, calling for Macron to form an alliance and appoint a leftist from their ranks as the next PM. This would potentially cause a revolt among Macron’s centrist allies in the parlaiment, however, given divides on economic and foreign policy, particularly over the staunch anti-Israel messaging from the likes of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the major far-left power broker behind the New Popular Front.
Although Barnier was pitched to the public as a steady political operator who could navigate the divided National Assembly and pass through budgetary cuts needed to avert the nation’s looming debt crisis, the 73-year-old veteran politician was apparently not up to the task. Stunningly, reports emerged on Tuesday that Barnier believed that Le Pen’s threat to collapse the government over social security cuts was a bluff and therefore decided to abandon negotiating with the RN leader.
Appearing before the hemicycle at the Palais Bourbon on Wednesday, Le Pen said: “Here we are at the moment of truth… which puts an end to an ephemeral government… It is within its ranks that intransigence, sectarianism and dogmatism prohibited the Prime Minister from making the slightest concession, which would have avoided this outcome.”
“The budget we are rejecting today does not just break your promises. It has neither direction nor vision. It’s a technocratic budget that continues to slide downhill, careful not to touch the totem that is uncontrolled immigration,” Le Pen declared.
Despite attempts by Macron loyalists to feign outrage over the collaboration between the National Rally and the New Popular Front to take down the government, such critiques rang hollow, given Macron’s decision in July to form an election pact with the far-left to prevent Le Pen’s party from winning the election and taking power. Le Pen responded to the criticism on Wednesday by saying that joining the no confidence vote did not represent a partnership with the far-left and that she was merely using them as a “tool”.
Following the no confidence vote bringing down the government, Barnier will be able to hang on in the form of a caretaker until President Macron appoints a new prime minister. Barnier will be prevented from passing new legislation, however, he can enact emergency measures, including potentially approving money to fund public services to avoid an American-style government shut down.
In a last ditch media push attempt to save his job, Barnier warned Tuesday evening that preventing his government from passing a budget for next year, would automatically increase the taxes of 18 million people in the nation.
However, National Rally president Jordan Bardella branded the assertion as “totally false” and a tactic to “scare” the people. He said, citing a similar example in 1979, that the National Assembly can pass a special law to adjust tax rates to prevent hikes.
While the collapse of the government and the failure to pass a budget threaten to further destabilize the country’s economy, with borrowing costs for France surpassing that of chronically in debt Greece for the first time briefly this week amid the political turmoil, Bardella argued that Barnier’s budget was a greater threat to the French economy than ousting Barnier from office, pointing to the approximate 40 billion euros worth of tax hikes on the already struggling economy.
“This budget is dangerous for the country,” the RN leader said, warning that it would “plunge our economy into a significant recession and weaken the purchasing power of the most vulnerable.”
“Therefore, I take my responsibilities and I assume the promises we made to our voters, namely to protect them.”
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