After government censorship, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier presented his resignation Thursday morning to President Emmanuel Macron, who will address the nation to try to set a course in a period of great uncertainty, coupled with a budget crisis.
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This political storm could be coupled with a social storm. From teachers to air traffic controllers, Thursday is marked by mobilization and strike action in the civil service, with dozens of rallies planned across the country, and civil aviation has asked airlines to reduce their programs of thefts.
Former European Commissioner, Mr. Barnier, from the right, was received for an hour by President Macron. In accordance with the Constitution, the Prime Minister is “de facto resigned” due to censorship, the Élysée announced.
The Head of State will address the French at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. GMT), his entourage indicated.
A necessary intervention as the political crisis is deep since the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly in June wanted by Mr. Macron, after the rout of his camp in the European elections against the far right.
The anticipated legislative elections which followed resulted in the formation of a National Assembly fractured into three blocs (alliance of left, Macronists and right, extreme right), none of which has an absolute majority. After 50 days of negotiations, a government of the right and the center was finally appointed at the beginning of September.
Three months later, it found itself swept aside by the Assembly. A first in France since 1962. But also a sad record for the outgoing executive: never had a government been so ephemeral during the Fifth French Republic, proclaimed in 1958.
The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, asked Mr. Macron on Thursday morning to appoint a prime minister “quickly” so as to “not let uncertainty set in”.
Consultations
She was received by the Head of State while her counterpart in the Senate, Gérard Larcher, was to be received at 3 p.m. (2 p.m. GMT).
Mr. Macron is also having lunch on Thursday at the Élysée with the leader of the centrist Modem party, François Bayrou, whose name is being circulated to take over from Mr. Barnier, we learned from a close source.
The entourage of the head of state, at his lowest in the polls, is not providing any timetable at this stage, but several of those close to him have confided that he intends to act quickly. From Thursday evening? “He has no choice,” says one of his relatives.
But both the left, the center or the right appear disunited to agree on a new coalition government.
-The head of deputies of the radical left party La France insoumise (LFI) has already warned on Thursday that her party would “of course” censor any prime minister who is not from the left alliance of the New Popular Front (NFP), which brings together ecologists, socialists, communists and the radical left.
The blow is all the harder for those in power as censorship was widely voted for, by 331 votes, when 288 were required.
Parliamentarians from the left and the far-right National Rally (RN) party, as well as its allies, voted together to censure the government on budgetary issues, while France is very heavily in debt.
The radical left immediately demanded the resignation of the head of state and an “early presidential election”.
The leader of the French far right Marine Le Pen seemed more measured in her first reaction, assuring that she would let the future head of government “work” to “co-construct a budget acceptable to all”. She did not ask for Mr. Macron’s resignation.
Elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2022, the head of state, whose mandate runs until 2027, said on Tuesday that he intended to serve his mandate “until the last second”.
The “reality” of debt
If the fall of Michel Barnier was perceived as a “death foretold”, the French press was worried on Thursday about “unknown times looming”.
“What consequences after the fall of Barnier?”, headlines the Latest News from Alsace. “And now?” asks the Eastern Lightning. Same story from the daily Le Parisien, which insists: “After censorship the big blur”.
The situation leaves the French divided: 53% approve of the deputies’ decision, but 82% are worried about its consequences, according to a Toluna Harris Interactive poll for RTL.
“Blurred”, “impasse”, “vicious circle”: from the north to the south of the country, concern and weariness were evident among the French people interviewed by AFP.
The budgetary situation of the second largest economy in the euro zone requires an executive quickly. Expected at 6.1% of GDP in 2024, the public deficit will miss its target of 5% in the absence of a budget.
France spends 60 billion euros per year to pay interest on its debt, more than for its defense or higher education, Mr. Barnier recalled on Wednesday. And to warn: “We can say what we want, it’s reality.”
The rating agency Moody’s estimated in a note published overnight that the fall of the government “reduces the probability of a consolidation of public finances” in France.
The markets nevertheless remained calm. After opening slightly lower (-0.28%) on Thursday, the Paris Stock Exchange was moving slightly higher at midday (+0.22%). And far from soaring, the rate at which France borrows on the markets was even trending downward.
