“Some political groups have chosen chaos,” he said, referring to the no-confidence vote which led to Michel Barnier standing down just three months after he was appointed by Macron. “They don’t want to build, they want to dismantle.”
Barnier’s government the shortest-tenured in modern French history, following the first successful no-confidence vote in France in more than 60 years. Sparking his downfall was his proposed financing bill, which included €60 billion ($98.4 billion) worth of tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at bringing the country’s budget deficit down to 5 per cent next year.
Michel Barnier has resigned as France’s prime minister following a no-confidence vote.Credit: Bloomberg
Macron must now appoint a new prime minister and task them with either passing a law that extends this year’s budget into the early months of 2025 or pushing a complete budget through parliament by the end of the year to avoid a government shutdown. Macron said the next prime minister would be charged with forming a “government of general interest” with a priority of passing a budget.
Addressing voters directly, he said some of his political opponents were not thinking “about you, the voters”, suggesting that their interest was in the next presidential election.
“Let’s be honest, they think about one thing: the presidential election,” Macron said of the party of his long-term, hard-right National Rally rival Marine Le Pen. He said the rival party’s “cynical” approach had brought “a sense of chaos” to the country.
After Macron’s address, Le Pen wrote a “Gentle reminder to President Macron” in a post on X that no-confidence votes are “not anti-Republican, but provided for in our constitution”.
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen says Macron will continue to feel the pressure.Credit: AP
Le Pen, whose party holds the most seats in the French parliament, stopped short of calling for Macron’s resignation but warned that “the pressure on the president of the republic will get stronger and stronger”.
The one thing to never forget is that Macron is hated in France with a vicious passion. The people of France see him as arrogant, elitist and unrelatable.
Alain Minc, a political essayist and long-term informal adviser to French presidents, said on Thursday: “Macron is a victim of his own narcissism … He was in denial of reality.”
Barnier will stay on in a caretaker role for now, but Macron is under pressure to quickly name a new prime minister who might offer the country some stability. Candidates include Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and centrist former presidential candidate François Bayrou.
Whoever is chosen, few believe a new government will manage to navigate the minefield of a bitterly divided parliament. France could be back in this position again soon enough.
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