THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT will face two votes of no confidence this evening that could spell the end of the administration of recently appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
If the government falls, it would be the first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.
The lifespan of Barnier’s government would also be the shortest of any administration of the Fifth Republic, which began in 1958.
The National Assembly is due to debate two motions brought by the left and the far right in a standoff over next year’s austerity budget, which saw the prime minister force through a social security financing bill without a vote on Monday.
The budget includes €60 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at bringing down France’s growing national deficit.
The turmoil follows a surprise snap parliamentary election called by President Emmanuel Macron in the summer that he said was aimed at countering “the extremes” in French politics. His gamble did not pay off.
If the Barnier government falls, Macron will have to appoint a new prime minister who has the support of the parliament, which will be no easy task.
The no-confidence motion brought by the far-right National Rally (RN) led Marine Le Pen is expected to be rejected.
But Le Pen has said her RN colleagues would back the left’s motion, giving it enough numbers to pass in a vote that could topple the French government. It would be the first time a no-confidence vote took down a French government since 1962.
Barnier said in a television interview yesterday that he believed his government could still survive but offered no last-minute concessions.
No new elections can be called within a year of last summer’s vote.
Some have suggested the president should resign to break the impasse.
But Macron rejected those calls, saying such a scenario amounted to “political fiction”.
With reporting from AFP
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