French President Emmanuel Macron vowed Thursday (December 5, 2024) to stay in office until the end of his term, due in 2027, and announced that he will name a new prime minister within days following the resignation of ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

Mr. Macron came out fighting a day after a historic no-confidence vote at the National Assembly left France without a functioning government. He laid blame at the door of his opponents on the far right for bringing down Barnier’s government.

“They chose disorder,” he said.

The president said the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front” and stressed: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility.”

He said he’d name a new prime minister within days but gave no hints who that might be.

While critical of his political opponents, Mr. Macron also acknowledged his own “responsibility” in the chaos now shaking French politics and alarming financial markets.

He revisited his decision in June to dissolve parliament. That precipitated the crisis, leading to new legislative elections that produced the now hung parliament, divided between three minority blocs that don’t have enough seats to govern alone.

“I do recognise that this decision wasn’t understood. Many people criticised me for it. I know many continue to criticise me for it,” he said. However, he argued, “I believe it was necessary” to let French voters speak.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Macron “took note” of Barnier’s resignation, the Elysee presidential palace said. Barnier and other ministers will be “in charge of current affairs until the appointment of a new government,” the statement said.

The no-confidence motion passed by 331 votes in the National Assembly, forcing Barnier to step down after just three months in office—the shortest tenure of any prime minister in modern French history.

The new prime minister “will be charged with forming a government of general interest representing all the political forces … that commit not to vote a no-confidence motion,” Mr. Macron said.

The priority will be to pass a budget law for 2025, he added.

Mr. Macron tore into lawmakers who brought Barnier’s government down, accusing them of pursuing their own political interests. He noted that the vote came with the end of year holidays just around the corner.

“Why did lawmakers act this way? They’re not thinking of you, of your lives, your difficulties,” he said. “They’re thinking of just one thing: the presidential election — to prepare it, to provoke it, to precipitate it.”

But Mr. Macron said he’d see out the 30 months still left in his second and last term as president.

Mr. Macron faces the critical task of naming a replacement capable of leading a minority government in a parliament where no party holds a majority. Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly and a member of Mr. Macron’s party, urged the president to move quickly.

“I recommend he decide rapidly on a new prime minister,” Braun-Pivet said Thursday on France Inter radio. “There must not be any political hesitation. We need a leader who can speak to everyone and work to pass a new budget bill.”

The process may prove challenging. Mr. Macron’s administration has yet to confirm any names, though French media have reported a shortlist of centrist candidates who might appeal to both sides of the political spectrum.

Mr. Macron took more than two months to appoint Barnier after his party’s defeat in June’s legislative elections, raising concerns about potential delays this time.

The no-confidence vote has galvanised opposition leaders, with some explicitly calling for Mr. Macron’s resignation.

“I believe that stability requires the departure of the President of the Republic,” said Manuel Bompard, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, on BFM TV Wednesday night.

Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, whose party holds the most seats in the Assembly, stopped short of calling for Mr. Macron’s resignation but warned that “the pressure on the President of the Republic will get stronger and stronger.”

Mr. Macron, however, has dismissed such calls and ruled out new legislative elections. The French constitution does not call for a president to resign after his government was ousted by the National Assembly.

“I was elected to serve until 2027, and I will fulfil that mandate,” he told reporters earlier this week.

The constitution also says that new legislative elections cannot be held until at least July, creating a potential stalemate for policymakers.

The political instability has heightened concerns about France’s economy, particularly its debt, which could rise to 7% of GDP next year without significant reforms. Analysts say that Barnier’s government downfall could push up French interest rates, digging the debt even further.

Rating agency Moody’s warned late Wednesday that the government’s fall “reduces the likelihood of consolidating public finances” and worsens the political gridlock.

Mr. Macron’s speech, scheduled for 8 p.m. local time, is expected to address these economic challenges while setting a course for the future government.

A planned protest by teachers against budget cuts in education took on a new tone Thursday, as demonstrators in Paris linked their demands to the political crisis.

“Macron quit!” read a sign held by Dylan Quenon, a 28-year-old teacher at a middle school in Aubervilliers, just north of Paris.

Mr. Quenon said Mr. Macron bears responsibility for what he described as the dismantling of public services like schools. “The only way for this to change is to have him out of office,” he said.

Protesters expressed little hope that Mr. Macron’s next appointee would reverse course.

“I’m glad this government is falling, but it could possibly lead to something even worse,” said Élise De La Gorce, a 33-year-old teacher in Stains, north of Paris.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier delivers his speech at the National Assembly while France’s minority government may be on its last legs as opposition lawmakers moved this week toward a no-confidence vote, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024 in Paris.
| Photo Credit: AP

France headed into a new political crisis on Tuesday (December 3, 2024) as opposition lawmakers vowed to topple the minority government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote after just three months in office.

A standoff over an austerity budget, which has caused jitters on financial markets, follows months of tension since President Emmanuel Macron appointed the 73-year-old in September.

Far-left party brings no-confidence motion

The far-left France Unbowed (LFI) opposition party said it would bring a no-confidence motion after Mr. Barnier used executive powers on Monday to force through social security legislation without a vote.

Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN), which has demanded changes to the 2025 budget, said it would back the LFI move.

French legislators were expected to vote on the motion Wednesday, with first results around 1900 GMT.

Two no-confidence motions will be put forward. One by the far right is unlikely to pass. Another proposed by the hard-left should go through with backing from RN lawmakers.

“Blocking this budget is, alas, the only way the constitution gives us to protect the French people from a dangerous, unfair and punitive budget,” Le Pen said on X.

Mr. Barnier warned against the move.

France’s situation is “very difficult in economic and social terms,” Mr. Barnier told the National Assembly lower house. The vote would “make everything more difficult and more serious,” he added.

Turbulence intensified political instability

Mr. Macron, currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia, has appeared to be mostly a spectator in the crisis he unleashed by ordering snap elections in June, prompting some voices to question if he should consider resigning.

The turbulence has intensified political instability in the key EU member following the inconclusive elections called by Macron in a bid to halt the rise of the far right.

Mr. Barnier has been under pressure to cut 60 billion euros ($64 billion) off government spending in 2025 in a bid to cut the public-sector deficit to five percent of gross domestic product, from 6.1% of GDP this year.

He has made a number of concessions to the opposition including scrapping plans for a less generous prescription drug reimbursement policy from next year. But Le Pen has still opposed Barnier’s plan.

Le Pen kept asking for concessions and Barnier had not thought she would back a no-confidence motion, a political source said.

“I didn’t think she’d dare,” Mr. Barnier said on Monday, according to the source.

Jockeying for leadership positions has started, with Socialist party boss Olivier Faure saying Macron must “appoint a left-wing prime minister”.

But economists at ING said the likelihood of quickly finding a replacement for Mr. Barnier was “highly uncertain” because the National Assembly is so divided.

People on Macron resigning

In a poll published on Monday, 52% of French people said they favoured Mr. Macron resigning, but were above all concerned about their purchasing power.

“I’m very worried and very upset with the forces on the left and the forces on the far right,” Bertrand Chenu, a 65-year-old retiree, told AFP in Paris.

In Strasbourg, Emmanuel Parisot, 51, said the crisis was Mr. Macron’s fault because he dissolved parliament and called snap polls.

“It’s all the president’s responsibility,” Parisot said. “We don’t know where that’s going to lead.”

If the government falls, it would be the first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.

The lifespan of Barnier’s government would also be the shortest of any administration of France’s Fifth Republic which began in 1958.

Some observers have suggested that Le Pen, 56, is playing a high-risk game and seeking to bring down Macron before his term ends by ousting Barnier.

Le Pen is embroiled in a high-profile embezzlement trial. If found guilty in March, she could be blocked from participating in France’s next presidential election, scheduled for 2027.

If Mr. Macron stepped down soon, an election would have to be called within a month, potentially ahead of the verdict in her trial.

“She could hope, if she won, to be in the Elysee Palace by early February,” said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group.