French President Emmanuel Macron is set to address the nation on Thursday evening, following the ousting of Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote.
Before Barnier officially tendered his resignation on Thursday morning, several names were being floated as potential replacements for prime minister, including Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, and centrist former presidential candidate François Bayrou.
However, selecting a candidate who won’t face immediate opposition from major parliamentary factions could take time, as was the case in the summer, when former PM Gabriel Attal served as caretaker for two months.
Barnier may be asked to stay on in the interim.
Barnier’s government collapsed after MPs overwhelmingly supported the motion against him, just three months after his appointment by Macron. The vote on Wednesday night marked the first time in over 60 years that a French government had been voted down by parliament.
Both Marine Le Pen’s far-right and the left-wing New Popular Front united to censure Barnier’s government after the former Brexit negotiator used special powers to push through his budget without a vote. A total of 331 MPs voted in favor of the motion, surpassing the 288 votes needed to pass it.
Barnier is now required to submit the resignation of his government, and the budget that led to his downfall has been automatically withdrawn.
While Barnier’s resignation does not affect Macron constitutionally, many opposition politicians are increasingly vocal about their desire to force Macron to step down and call for early presidential elections—something Macron has firmly ruled out.
The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP), which secured the most seats in the parliamentary elections, had previously criticized Macron’s decision to appoint centrist Michel Barnier as prime minister over their own candidate.
Together with the far-right National Rally (RN), the NFP condemned Barnier’s budget, which aimed to reduce the deficit by €60bn (£49bn), calling it unacceptable.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN, described the budget as “toxic for the French.”
Ahead of the vote, Barnier addressed the National Assembly, stating that removing him from office would not resolve the country’s financial issues.
“We have reached a moment of truth and responsibility,” he said, adding that “we need to face the reality of our debt.”
“I didn’t present mainly difficult measures because I wanted to,” he explained.
In a TF1 interview on Wednesday, Le Pen asserted that removing Barnier was the only viable solution.
When asked about Macron’s future, she stated, “I am not calling for Emmanuel Macron’s resignation.”
However, many of her allies are increasingly vocal about their hopes of forcing his resignation. RN adviser Philippe Olivier told Le Monde that Macron was “a fallen republican monarch, advancing with his shirt open and a rope around his neck towards the next dissolution of parliament.”
With no new parliamentary elections possible until July, the current deadlock in the Assembly — where no group can secure a working majority — is expected to persist.
