Barnier loses the motion of censure presented by the left with the support of Le Pen and leaves France in limbo

On his 91st day in office, Michel Barnier He has just become the most fleeting prime minister of France in the country’s recent history. This Wednesday afternoon, the head of the Executive has lost the motion of censure presented by the New Popular Front —the great alliance of leftist parties— and supported by National Regrouping of Marine Le Pen. Your call for “responsibility” has been of no use. “I have not proposed difficult measures for pleasure, I would have preferred to distribute the money,” he ironized. He then put on the table the 60,000 million euros of debt interest that Paris has to pay each year, more than the amount reserved for Defense, and highlighted that “this reality will not disappear through the magic of a motion of censure.”

The political death of Barnier, who now has to present his resignation to the president Emmanuel Macronhad been announced since Monday and has been confirmed with the expected result of 331 deputies (out of 577) in favor of his departure.

The prime minister was unable to reach an agreement with the different political groups on the 2025 Social Security budgets. He made numerous concessions, but failed to convince the ultras. Instead, he announced that he would approve them by decree, without putting them to a vote in the National Assembly, divided into three large blocks since the last legislative elections.

As a consequence, the left presented a motion of censure. The extreme right did the same and announced that it would vote in favor of the one presented by its opposite pole on the French political spectrum. And he has kept his promise. Now France is mired in total uncertainty that leaves the president on a tightrope Macrontraveling in Saudi Arabia.

The Constitution does not allow new elections to be called until one year after the last one, held in July. For this reason, Macron must urgently appoint a new prime minister to form a Government that is capable of approving the new accounts. The objective is to prevent chaos from reigning (even more) and the country from entering a recession. Until his successor is appointed, Barnier could manage some domestic affairs as interim.

“A death foretold”

The two motions have been evaluated at the same time, although that of the New Popular Front has been the one that has obtained the most signatures. The latter has been presented to Parliament Eric Coquerelfrom La Francia Insumisa, which from the beginning eliminated any hope for Barnier. “Mr. Prime Minister, today we make history. You, because you will be the only prime minister censored since Georges Pompidou in 1962; me, because I have the honor of presenting this motion of censure,” he began his speech.

“His failure was foretold,” he said, because he is a victim of “the curse transmitted to him by the true person responsible for this situation, Emmanuel Macron: his illegitimacy.” Subsequently, he explained that the fall of the Government is, in his opinion, the beginning of the end of his supporter, who in October, two months after the legislative elections, appointed a conservative prime minister despite the fact that the left had been the winner of the elections. the elections. “Today we kill a mandate: that of the president [Macron]“said Coquerel.

Previously, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of what is the third party in Parliament, had already called for the Macron resignationwhom he blames for the country’s political instability.

Le Pen, against the budgets

During your shift, Le Pen announced that it was “the moment of truth, the end of an ephemeral government.” In this way, he considered Barnier sentenced, whom he accused of not wanting to dialogue or give in during the budget negotiations. “Por intransigence, dogmatism and sectarianism has prevented the slightest concession to the opposition,” he said.

To justify her support for the motion, Le Pen attacked the proposed budgets by the prime minister. “They take the French hostage and, in particular, the most vulnerable: the low-income retirees, the sick, the working poor, the French considered too rich to receive help but not poor enough to escape.” of tax punishment,” he denounced.

The truth is that, on Monday, the Barnier Government made some concessions before Le Pen’s party in order to approve the budgets. Among them, the suppression of a electricity taxthe reduction of subsidies for certain medicines and medical aid for irregular migrants. However, it was insufficient for the extreme right.