French President Emmanuel Macron will on Thursday seek a way out of France’s political crisis after Michel Barnier became the first prime minister to be removed from power by parliament in six decades.
Barnier’s resignation
Lawmakers voted on Wednesday to dismiss Barnier’s government after just three months in power, approving a vote of no confidence proposed by the left but backed by the right-wing led by Marine Le Pen.
President Emmanuel Macron will now be forced to accept Barnier’s resignation (albeit with the possibility of re-election) and France will once again be ruled by an interim government. New early parliamentary elections can only be called by the president, according to the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, one year after the last election, which was held in July. This is the second such case since 1962, when the government of Georges Pompidou was resigned.
The vote of no confidence was prompted by disagreements between the country’s political forces that arose during the negotiation of the 2025 budget. In order to reduce the budget deficit, Barnier’s cabinet proposed to cut spending by €40bn, as well as to raise taxes for large corporations and wealthy Frenchmen (this would bring the treasury another €20bn). However, a number of his proposals were opposed by the RN, which threatened a vote of no confidence.
Barnier’s record-breaking ouster came after snap parliamentary elections this summer, which left parliament in limbo, with no party gaining an overall majority and the right holding the key to the government’s survival. It was the first successful vote of no confidence since the defeat of Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.
Appeals to Macron
Macron flew to Paris just before the vote, having completed a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, and appeared to be far from a domestic crisis.
Earlier on Wednesday, he had walked the desert sands in the oasis of Al-Ula, marvelling at ancient sites. After landing in Paris, he headed straight for the Elysee Palace.
“We call on Macron to leave,” Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary faction of the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters, calling for “early presidential elections” to resolve the deepening political crisis. But while trying not to exult over the government’s downfall, Le Pen said in a television interview that her party – after appointing a new prime minister – would “let them work” and help create a “budget acceptable to all.”
Laurent Wauquiez, the head of right-wing MPs in parliament, said the far right and extreme left were responsible for the vote of no confidence, which would “plunge the country into instability.”
Candidates for prime minister
There are few candidates for prime minister, but loyalist Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Macron’s centrist ally Francois Bayrou are possible contenders.
On the left, Macron may turn to former prime minister and Socialist interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who was a contender in September.
Barnier became the fifth prime minister to serve under Macron since he took power in 2017, with each prime minister holding office for increasingly shorter periods. Given the turbulent environment, the new candidate risks lasting even less than Barnier, whose term was the shortest of any administration since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Macron intends to appoint a new prime minister quickly, several sources told AFP.
A source close to Macron said the president, who has been slow to make appointments in the past, had “no choice” but to name a new prime minister within 24 hours.
Crisis heats up
With markets nervous and France bracing for strikes by civil servants threatening cuts that will close schools and hit air and rail transport, there is a growing sense of crisis.
Unions called for civil servants, including teachers and air traffic controllers, to strike on Thursday over separate cost-cutting measures.
Meanwhile, Macron is due to host a major international event on Saturday – the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire. Among the guests will be Donald Trump, making his first foreign trip since being elected as the next US president.
The head of France’s National Rally party Marine Le Pen has demanded that French President Emmanuel Macron resign, French media reported. She said:
“He [Macron] will take responsibility and do what reason and conscience tell him to do. But there is no doubt that he bears primary responsibility for the situation.”
Petition against Macron
A petition demanding the resignation of the country’s president Emmanuel Macron has been launched in France after a vote of no confidence in the government.
“He has been doing incredible damage to the country for seven long years: dividing it, making it insecure, humiliating it internationally, throwing it into war, weakening its position worldwide, silencing its voice in the European Union and NATO, implementing disastrous policies demanded by the EU that are leading us to collapse in all sectors of the economy. He must go,” the text of the petition reads.
The petition was launched by the Patriots party and posted on its website. The party’s founder Florian Philippot also called for a demonstration demanding Macron’s resignation on Saturday.
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV, 63 per cent of French people wanted Macron’s resignation in the event of a vote of no confidence in his government.
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, leader of the right-wing Debout la France (France Arise), wrote on X:
“Censorship is good, Macron’s departure is even better. In the meantime, let’s hope that the new prime minister will actually respect the French.”
