France’s political crisis escalates as PM Michel Barnier’s government loses the trust vote.

PARIS: France is facing a major political crisis after Prime Minister Michel Barnier lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly on Wednesday, raising fears over the European Union’s second-largest economic power’s forthcoming budget for next year.

Far-right and left-wing MPs came together to support a no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his administration, which received a majority of 331 votes.
Barnier was expected to hand up his resignation and that of his government to President Emmanuel Macron shortly.

“This (deficit) reality will not disappear by the magic of a motion of censure,” Barnier warned MPs prior to the vote, adding that the budget imbalance would return to haunt whoever administration comes next.

No French administration has lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou’s in 1962. Macron triggered the problem by calling a quick election in June, resulting in a split parliament.

With its president reduced, France now faces closing the year without a stable government or a 2025 budget, despite the fact that the constitution provides for exceptional measures to avoid a government shutdown such to the one in the United States.

France’s political turbulence will exacerbate a European Union already suffering from the collapse of Germany’s coalition government, and comes only weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump arrives to the White House.

“We have arrived at the moment of truth,” far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said, adding that Barnier’s austerity budget ideas were risky, unjust, and would have caused turmoil in France.

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) group has requested Macron’s resignation.

“With the no-confidence motion, all of Emmanuel Macron’s politics have been defeated, and we demand that he resign,” stated LFI member Mathilde Panot.