The French Parliament brought down Michel Barnier’s minority government on Wednesday evening. Now Emmanuel Macron must quickly find a successor. The president brought the crisis on himself six months ago.
Michel Barnier (center) is waiting for the vote of no confidence on Wednesday: He won’t survive it.
Lafargue Raphael / Imago / Abaca
You can’t blame Michel Barnier for not fighting until the end. The man with the always impeccably fitting suit came to the lectern at the Assemblée Nationale again on Wednesday evening, at 7:15 p.m. sharp. He wanted to try again and convince his opponents from left and right.
The 73-year-old said he would have preferred to distribute money to the citizens. But where do you get it from? France simply doesn’t have this money. And the “magic of a motion of no confidence” won’t change that. The consequences of a fall of the government would only make things worse, said Barnier. But it is not too late yet, the MPs can still change their minds. “You hold the future of the French in your hands!”
It was to be the last speech that Barnier gave in his capacity as Prime Minister of France in the Paris National Assembly. The result of the vote was known at 8:32 p.m. A total of 331 of the 577 MPs withdrew their confidence in Barnier and his cabinet. 288 votes would have been enough. The overwhelming majority of the left and right opposition had decided to overthrow the government. There were almost no dissenters who allowed themselves to be softened by Barnier.
Financial abysses
This is exactly what had been apparent since Monday at the latest. The left and the very right camp, otherwise enemies of each other, should join forces for once and drive the Barnier government, which never had its own majority, out of office. The right-wing national Rassemblement National (RN) – or rather its leader Marine Le Pen – made it clear at the beginning of the week that it would no longer support Barnier. And the government’s survival has so far depended on their tolerance.
The deciding factor for Le Pen was a law to finance social security – one of several packages with which the Barnier government wanted to plug a €60 billion hole in France’s budget. Le Pen never really accepted the government’s austerity budget. She was also not convinced by the many concessions with which Barnier tried to accommodate her.
The Prime Minister didn’t even have to negotiate with the left-wing camp. They categorically rejected the budget proposal. And so Barnier finally announced that he would make use of the controversial Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, which allows laws to be passed without the consent of Parliament. Barnier took into account the risk that the question of trust could be asked following the 49.3 procedure.
And on Tuesday, in a television interview, the former EU commissioner explained again why. He recalled the debt crisis and the serious financial problems that France has. For the first time, France would have to pay higher interest rates than Greece, Barnier told the two journalists from TF1 and France 2, whom he had invited to his office. And it is to be expected that the situation will get even worse without a government capable of acting and doing something about the budget deficit, which will soon reach 6 percent.
The Barnier government’s budget plan included 60 billion euros in tax increases and spending cuts to combat France’s widening deficit. They are actually urgently needed to regain investors’ lost trust in the French state and, not least, to meet the EU’s requirements, which set an upper limit of 3 percent of economic output for new debt.
“Believe me, the company car, the splendor of the republic, none of that matters to me!” said Barnier. The only reason he wanted to remain prime minister was to spare France the fate of a country without a government that would slide even further into the financial abyss.
One thing is clear: the EU’s second largest economy is now actually without a government. French President Emmanuel Macron, who only appointed Barnier in September, must quickly appoint a new prime minister. The country’s media was abuzz with speculation about possible candidates on Wednesday. Should it be done by Sébastien Lecornu, the previous defense minister, who is also said to be liked by President’s wife Brigitte Macron, or should it be a socialist, Bernard Cazeneuve, the former interior minister Gérald Darmanin or even the former EU commissioner Thierry Breton? The ministers can remain in office until a new one is found.
Macron doesn’t want to leave for a long time
Macron, who only returned from a state visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, acted for a long time as if the domestic political turmoil in the country was none of his business. When journalists in Riyadh asked him about the impending end of the government, he became emotional: “I can’t believe it!” he shouted. And he accused the RN of “unbearable cynicism”. The MPs from Marine Le Pen’s party could not agree to a proposal from the left that insulted them and their voters. The New Popular Front’s motion of no confidence speaks of a “bulwark against the extreme right”.
After Barnier’s announcement that he would use the 49.3 procedure, the right-wing nationalists also drafted their own motion of no confidence. Nevertheless, they approved the Left’s resolution on Wednesday. But there is still a lot of mystery in Paris about why Le Pen decided to drop Barnier in the first place.
After his appointment in September, she still acted as a supporter of the state and tolerated his cabinet in order to avoid chaos, as she said at the time. She also promised to have a certain influence on the government, not least on migration. But recently the majority of their voters wanted the government to be overthrown. In addition, Le Pen faces a prison sentence next year in a court case for embezzling EU funds. It is quite possible that Le Pen wants to bring about presidential elections beforehand and is therefore putting maximum pressure on Macron.
However, Emmanuel Macron seems more determined than ever to stay at the Élysée Palace until 2027. The president received Barnier on Wednesday evening to accept his resignation. Macron wants to address the nation in a speech on Thursday evening. Lately he has been floating in higher spheres, traveling to Latin America and the Gulf, speaking on the phone to Donald Trump, whom he invited to the ceremonial reopening of Notre Dame in Paris this weekend. Now he has to explain how things should continue in France’s biggest crisis in decades.
