This is unprecedented since 1962: the National Assembly brought down Michel Barnier's government on Wednesday. With 331 votes, much more than the 288 votes required, the deputies adopted the motion of censure tabled by the New Popular Front (NFP). The other motion tabled by the National Rally (RN), examined immediately, therefore did not need to be put to a vote.
There was little doubt as to the adoption of the left's motion, the RN having announced its intention to vote for it and 325 deputies having signed one or the other of the two motions. These were tabled on Monday following the Prime Minister's triggering of article 49.3 of the Constitution, to have the Social Security financing bill adopted without a vote.
Debates on the two motions began in the chamber shortly before 5 p.m. The deputies were then invited to vote in the lounges adjacent to the meeting room. Only those in favor of censorship took part in the vote; it is not possible to vote “against”, which makes the votes public. Insoumis, RN, Horizons… Find out which deputies voted.
Unsurprisingly, almost all elected officials from the four political groups making up the NFP took part in the vote – 185 had co-signed the motion of censure.
The RN for its part gave 123, despite a text which directly attacked the far-right party, accusing Michel Barnier of having sought “a now clear agreement” with Marine Le Pen's party and believing that the Prime Minister “gave in to their vilest obsessions”. In the morning on Wednesday, the president of the RN Jordan Bardella warned that the vote for this censorship “is not an alliance with the left” but “the expression of a rejection of the government”.
The centrist elected officials of Liot, for their part, gave only one vote. On Tuesday, spokesperson Harold Huwart indicated, however, that “no MP intends to vote for censure at this stage”. In the end, only the Guadeloupe deputy Olivier Serva voted for censure.