The French government was toppled Wednesday after far-left and far-right lawmakers joined forces to pass a no-confidence measure against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his Cabinet.
Barnier, who held the post of prime minister for barely three months, is now obliged to tender his resignation, and that of his government, to French President Emmanuel Macron.
It was the first time since 1962 that a French government was ousted like this. The move is expected to usher in a period of political uncertainty in the second-biggest economic power in the European Union.
Barnier’s foes in France’s lower house of Parliament needed 299 votes to oust him.
They got 331 after Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally joined with the leftist coalition in the chamber to oust the Barnier government.
“In a republic, only the people are sovereign,” Mathilde Panot, the leader of the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) parliamentary group, said after the vote.
Barnier, who was appointed by Macron in September, told French TV on Tuesday that it was “possible” he could survive. But as the votes were tallied, it quickly became clear that he was about to become the head of the shortest-lived government in French history.
“As this mission may soon come to an end, I can tell you that it will remain an honor for me to have served France and the French with dignity,” Barnier said before the vote.
Macron’s political future is also on the line.
Under the French system, Macron is responsible for appointing prime ministers to be approved by Parliament. But he cannot dissolve the legislative body again until next year.
While he could try to bring Barnier back in or appoint a successor or a temporary government of technocrats, they, too, would be vulnerable to being ousted in a legislative body where no party holds a majority.
Currently, it consists of three major blocs: Macron’s centrist allies, the left-wing New Popular Front coalition and the far-right National Rally.
If Macron “cannot get a government together with the support of a majority in parliament, he is going out and going to come under increasing pressure to resign,” Douglas Webber, an emeritus professor at the INSEAD business school, based in Paris, told NBC News on Tuesday.
Macron was expected to make a televised address to the country about the unraveling political situation Thursday.
Barnier and his government are the latest casualties of the political instability roiling France and the rest of Europe.
Far-right populists and nationalists — many of them allies of President-elect Donald Trump — have been tapping into the widespread public discontent about rising post-pandemic prices and immigration to increase their power in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, and elsewhere in Europe.
It was disagreements over how to rein in the French government’s soaring budget deficit that did Barnier in.
After France spent billions during the pandemic, Barnier moved to cut 40 billion euros ($42 billion) in spending and raise taxes by 20 billion euros.
That wound up uniting two opposition blocs — typically at odds with each other — against Barnier.
“We said what were the nonnegotiable elements for us,” LePen said Monday. “We are straight in our political approach. We defend the French people.”
