In France, the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier was brought down by a vote of no confidence on Wednesday evening. A total of 331 of the 577 MPs withdrew their confidence in the cabinet. MPs from the right and left camps voted against Barnier in parliament. The trigger was a dispute over the state budget. The cabinet can remain in office temporarily to carry out day-to-day business.
In the dispute over the budget, both the left-wing alliance and the right-wing Rassemblement National submitted motions of no confidence against the conservative prime minister on Monday afternoon. A dispute over the budget law for 2025 led to dissatisfaction: Barnier forced a draft budget through parliament. This provides for higher taxes and cost reductions in public administration. The austerity budget was necessary because France has high debts and a high economic deficit.
The French government has been in office for less than three months. This makes it the shortest government the country has had since 1958. The fall of the prime minister himself is also a historic event: no government in France has been dismissed by parliament since 1962.
With the fall, President Emmanuel Macron now faces the difficult task of finding a new prime minister who can draw up a new budget in a short space of time.
Macron rules out resignation
Barnier had previously rejected calls that President Emmanuel Macron should also resign with him. Macron is a guarantor of stability in France, he said on television on Tuesday evening. Macron himself also ruled out an early end to his term in office, which runs until 2027. He would honor the trust placed in him with all his energy until the last second, he said during a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
The complicated majority situation in the French National Assembly will remain in place for the time being. Neither the left-wing alliance nor the center-right forces around Macron nor Le Pen’s right-wing nationalists have a majority capable of governing on their own. Efforts to cooperate have so far been unsuccessful. After the early parliamentary elections this summer, new elections will not be possible until the summer of 2025.
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