LIVE – Motion of censure: the Barnier government on reprieve

Michel Barnier's fragile government may only have a few days to live. The Prime Minister was forced on Monday to take responsibility for the Social Security budget, a first 49.3 synonymous with a motion of censure. This did not take long, at the initiative of the left-wing alliance New Popular Front. The text, which will be debated on Wednesday at the earliest, will be defended by the president of the Finance Committee, Insoumis Eric Coquerel. The RN group has already made it known that it would vote for it, but also that it was tabling its own motion of censure with its Ciottist allies.

To bring down the government, 288 deputies will have to vote for censure, a number well within the reach of an alliance of circumstances between the left and the RN.

The adoption by the National Assembly of such a motion of censure would be a first since the overthrow of the government of Georges Pompidou in 1962. The Barnier government would then become the shortest in the history of the Fifth Republic.

The Elysée made no comment on the new political situation, while Emmanuel Macron landed in Riyadh for a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia. But it is the head of state who will quickly have control because, if the scenario of censorship is confirmed, he will have to appoint a Prime Minister.

In the event of the fall of the Barnier government, France would sink further into the political crisis created by the dissolution of the National Assembly by Emmanuel Macron in June, with the added risk of a financial crisis linked to France's capacity to borrow on the markets at low rates.