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.

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday sought a new prime minister to prevent France from sliding deeper into political turmoil after Michel Barnier’s government was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote in parliament.

Poised to be contemporary France’s shortest-serving premier, Barnier met Macron at the Elysee Palace to submit his resignation, after the defeat in parliament on Wednesday forced his government to step down.

The vote was the first successful no-confidence action since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.

Macron was to meet both upper and lower house parliament speakers before giving an address to the nation at 1900 GMT.

The president is believed to be in a hurry to appoint the new premier to avoid a vacuum, according to multiple sources who spoke to AFP.

Limiting any impression of political chaos is all the more important for Macron who on Saturday will host world leaders — including US president-elect Donald Trump — for the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after the devastating 2019 fire.

A majority of lawmakers on Wednesday supported the no-confidence vote proposed by the hard left and backed by the far right headed by Marine Le Pen.

Barnier’s record-quick ejection comes after snap parliamentary elections in June resulted in a hung parliament with no political force able to form an overall majority and the far right holding the key to the government’s survival.

The trigger for Barnier’s ouster was his 2025 budget plan including austerity measures that were unacceptable to a majority in parliament, but that he argued were necessary to stabilise France’s finances.

On Monday he forced through a social security financing bill without a vote, but the ousting of the government means France is still without a budget.

National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet urged Macron to quickly choose a new premier, saying that France could not be allowed to “drift” for long.

“Macron alone in the face of an unprecedented political crisis,” said the Le Monde daily in its headline.

– ‘Political stalemate’ –

“France probably won’t have a 2025 budget,” said ING Economics in a note, predicting that the country “is entering a new era of political instability”.

Moody’s, a ratings agency, warned that Barnier’s fall “deepens the country’s political stalemate” and “reduces the probability of a consolidation of public finances”.

The Paris stock exchange fell at the opening on Thursday before recovering to show small gains. Yields on French government bonds were again under pressure in debt markets.

Strike calls across transport, education and other public sector services were maintained on Thursday despite the disappearance of the austerity budget that has prompted anger.

Macron has more than two years of his presidential term left, but some opponents are calling on him to resign.

“We are now calling on Macron to go,” Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary faction of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters.

She urged “early presidential elections” to solve the political crisis.

Macron has however vehemently rejected such a scenario, calling it “political fiction”.

Taking care not to crow over the government’s fall, Le Pen said in a television interview that, once a new premier is appointed, her party “would let them work” and help create a “budget that is acceptable for everyone”.

She also, conspicuously, did not call on Macron to resign.

– Bayrou-Macron lunch –

Barnier is the fifth prime minister to serve under Macron since he came to power in 2017, with each premier serving a successively shorter period.

Given the composition of the National Assembly, there is no guarantee that Barnier’s successor would last any longer.

Loyalist Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Macron’s centrist ally Francois Bayrou have been touted as possible contenders, as has former Socialist premier and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Bayrou, who leads the MoDem party, had lunch with the president at the Elysee, a source close to him told AFP.

Before his address to the nation, Macron was also to meet Braun-Pivet and upper-house Senate speaker Gerard Larcher.

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