{"id":44546,"date":"2024-12-05T05:54:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T05:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=44546"},"modified":"2024-12-05T05:54:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T05:54:49","slug":"french-pm-to-resign-after-government-falls-while-macron-seeks-solution-to-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/12\/05\/french-pm-to-resign-after-government-falls-while-macron-seeks-solution-to-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"French PM to resign after government falls while Macron seeks solution to crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The French prime minister, Michel Barnier, is expected to resign on Thursday, a day after his government became the\u00a0first to be toppled by a no-confidence vote\u00a0in more than 60 years and just three months after it took office \u2013 a record ouster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnier is due to present President\u00a0Emmanuel Macron\u00a0with his government\u2019s resignation on Thursday morning. The president would address the nation on Thursday evening, the Elys\u00e9e said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can tell you that it will remain an honour for me to have served\u00a0France\u00a0and the French with dignity,\u201d Barnier said in his final speech before the vote. \u201cThis no-confidence motion \u2026 will make everything more serious and more difficult. That\u2019s what I\u2019m sure of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Barnier\u2019s defenestration comes after snap parliamentary elections this summer, which\u00a0resulted in a hung parliament<\/a>with no party having an overall majority and the far right holding the key to the government\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macron has the unenviable task of picking a viable successor with over two years of his presidential term left, with some \u2013 though not all \u2013 opponents calling on him to resign. The fragmented parliament will remain unchanged as no new legislative elections can be held until at least July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The no-confidence motion, brought by the hard left in the National Assembly, came amid a standoff over next year\u2019s austerity budget, after the prime minister on Monday forced through a social security financing bill without a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the crucial support of Marine Le Pen\u2019s far-right National Rally, a majority of 331 MPs in the 577-member chamber voted to oust the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"French<\/a>
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, centre, applauds with other National Rally parliament members ahead of the no-confidence motion. Photograph: Michel Euler\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on TF1 television after the vote, the National Rally leader, Marine Le Pen, said \u201cwe had a choice to make, and our choice is to protect the French\u201d from a \u201ctoxic\u201d budget. Le Pen also accused Macron of being \u201clargely responsible for the current situation\u201d, adding that \u201cthe pressure on the president of the Republic will get stronger and stronger\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou\u2019s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macron flew back into Paris just ahead of the vote after wrapping up a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, an apparent world away from the domestic crisis. He strolled earlier on Wednesday through the desert sands of the Al-Ula oasis, marvelling at ancient landmarks. After landing in Paris, he headed directly to the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are now calling on Macron to go,\u201d Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary faction of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters, urging \u201cearly presidential elections\u201d to solve the deepening political crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking care not to crow over the government\u2019s fall, Le Pen said in a television interview that her party \u2013 once a new prime minister was appointed \u2013 \u201cwould let them work\u201d and help create a \u201cbudget that is acceptable for everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in an editorial, Le Monde said Le Pen had risked upsetting her own supporters, such as retirees and business leaders, by toppling the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the space of a few minutes, she shattered the strategy of normalisation she had consistently pursued,\u201d the daily said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurent Wauquiez, the head of rightwing deputies in parliament, said the far right and hard left bore the responsibility for a no-confidence vote that will \u201cplunge the country into instability\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates for the post of prime minister are few, but loyalist defence minister Sebastien Lecornu and Macron\u2019s centrist ally Francois Bayrou are possible contenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the left, Macron could turn to the former Socialist PM and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, a contender in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnier was the fifth prime minister since Macron came to power in 2017, with each serving a successively shorter period. Given the turbulence, the new nominee risks an even shorter term than Barnier, whose tenure was the shortest of any administration since the Fifth Republic began in 1958.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macron may appoint the new prime minister rapidly, several sources told AFP. A source close to Macron said the president, who has taken time with appointments in the past, had \u201cno choice\u201d but to do so within 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macron has rejected calls to resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With markets nervous and France bracing for public-sector strikes against the threat of cuts, action that will shut schools and hit air and rail traffic, there is a growing sense of crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unions have called for civil servants, including teachers and air-traffic controllers, to strike on Thursday over separate cost-cutting measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis failure\u201d was leftwing daily Liberation\u2019s front-page headline, with a picture of Macron, whose term runs until 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the president is due to host a major international event on Saturday with the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire, with guests including Donald Trump on his first foreign trip since he was re-elected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The French prime minister, Michel Barnier, is expected to resign on Thursday, a day after his government became the\u00a0first to be toppled by a no-confidence vote\u00a0in more than 60 years and just three months after it took office \u2013 a record ouster. Barnier is due to present President\u00a0Emmanuel Macron\u00a0with his government\u2019s resignation on Thursday morning. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,2459,11941,5249,7227,8440,524,8008,6159,11638,5575,6351,2264,12234,10954,11493,5205,5803,414,11743,5904,11662,2402,7155,1253,1198,2627,3805,371,11377,3174,8598,5333,8297,8160,1364,8810,9462,5655,912,8233,5470,10041,12003,5818,6988,7333,6741,5594,10415,36,594],"class_list":["post-44546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-ancient","tag-bill","tag-budget","tag-cathedral","tag-crisis","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-far-right","tag-fire","tag-forced","tag-france","tag-french","tag-government","tag-host","tag-international","tag-interview","tag-july","tag-le-pen","tag-macron","tag-majority","tag-marine-le-pen","tag-michel-barnier","tag-mps","tag-national-assembly","tag-paris","tag-parliament","tag-pm","tag-president","tag-president-of-the-republic","tag-presidential","tag-prime-minister","tag-rail","tag-rally","tag-resign","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-schools","tag-sebastien-lecornu","tag-security","tag-snap","tag-social-security","tag-space","tag-speech","tag-standoff","tag-strike","tag-successor","tag-summer","tag-teachers","tag-traffic","tag-work","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44548,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44546\/revisions\/44548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}