The French government is all but certain to collapse later this week after far-right and left-wing parties submitted no-confidence motions against Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
Investors immediately punished French assets as the latest developments plunged the euro zone’s second-biggest economy deeper into a political crisis, with serious doubt cast over whether the annual budget will be approved.
“The French have had enough,” National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen told reporters in parliament, saying Mr Barnier, who only became prime minister in early September, had made things worse and needed to be pushed out.
“We are proposing a motion of no confidence against the government,” she said.
Barring a last-minute surprise, Mr Barnier’s fragile coalition will be the first French government to be forced out by a no-confidence vote since 1962.
A government collapse would leave a hole at the heart of Europe, with Germany also in election mode, weeks ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump re-entering the White House.
RN politicians and the left combined have enough votes to topple Mr Barnier and Ms Le Pen confirmed her party would vote for the left-wing coalition’s no-confidence bill on top of the RN’s own bill.
That vote is likely to be held on Wednesday.
The parties announced their no-confidence motions after Mr Barnier said that he would try to ram a social security bill through parliament without a vote as a last-minute concession proved insufficient to win RN’s support for the legislation.
“Faced with this umpteenth denial of democracy, we will ensure the government,” said Mathilde Panot of the left-wing France Unbowed.
Since Mr Macron called snap elections in early June, France’s CAC40 has dropped nearly 10% and is the heaviest falls among top EU economies. It closed flat after dropping over 1% earlier in the day.
Blame game
Mr Barnier urged politicians not to back the no-confidence vote.
“We are at a moment of truth … the French will not forgive us for putting the interests of individuals before the future of the country,” he said as he put his government’s fate in the hands of the divided parliament which was the result of an inconclusive snap in June.
Mr Barnier’s minority government had relied on RN support for its survival.
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The budget bill, which seeks to curb France’s spiraling public deficit through €60 billion euros in tax hikes and spending cuts, snapped that tenuous link.
Mr Barnier’s entourage and Ms Le Pen’s camp each blamed the other and said they had done all they could to reach a deal and had been open to dialogue.
If the no-confidence vote does indeed go through, Mr Barnier would have to tender his resignation but Mr Macron may ask him and his government to stay on in a caretaker role while he seeks a new prime minister, which could well happen only next year.
