President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday sought a new prime minister to prevent France from being plunged into political turmoil after parliament ousted Michel Barnier’s government in a historic no-confidence vote.
Barnier, poised to become contemporary France’s shortest-serving prime minister, met Macron at the Elysee Palace to submit his resignation, after a defeat in parliament on Wednesday forced his government to step down.
The vote was the first successful no-confidence action since the defeat of the government of Georges Pompidou in 1962 during Charles de Gaulle’s presidency.
Macron was to meet the presidents of both the upper and lower houses of parliament before addressing the nation at 1900 GMT.
The president is believed to be rushing the appointment of a new prime minister to avoid a vacancy, according to multiple sources who spoke to AFP.
Limiting any perception of political chaos is more important for Macron, who on Saturday will host world leaders including US President-elect Donald Trump to mark the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a devastating 2019 fire.
On Wednesday, a majority of MPs supported the no-confidence vote proposed by the hard left and the far right led by Marine Le Pen.
Barnier’s record-quick ouster followed snap parliamentary elections in June that resulted in a hung parliament, in which no political force was able to form an overall majority and the far right held the key to the government’s survival.
The reason for Barnier’s expulsion was his 2025 budget plan which included austerity measures that were unacceptable to the majority in Parliament, but which he argued were necessary to stabilize France’s finances.
On Monday they passed the social security financing bill without a vote, but the government’s withdrawal means France is still without a budget.
National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivat urged Macron to choose a new prime minister soon, saying France could not be allowed to “drift” for long.
“Macron is alone in the face of an unprecedented political crisis,” Le Monde daily said in its headline.
– ‘Political impasse’ –
“France will probably not have a budget until 2025,” ING Economics said in a note, predicting that the country is “entering a new era of political instability”.
Rating agency Moody’s warned that Barnier’s downfall “deepens the country’s political impasse” and “reduces the prospects for the integration of public finances”.
The Paris Stock Exchange fell early on Thursday and then recovered to show slight gains. Yields on French government bonds were again under pressure in debt markets.
Strike calls across transport, education and other public sector services continued on Thursday despite the missing austerity budget, sparking anger.
Macron has more than two years left in his presidential term, but some opponents are demanding his resignation.
“We are now asking Macron to go,” Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary faction of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters.
He urged “early presidential elections” to resolve the political crisis.
However Macron has strongly rejected such a scenario, calling it a “political fantasy”.
Taking care not to worry over the collapse of the government, Le Pen said in a television interview that, once a new prime minister is appointed, her party will “let them work” and deliver a “budget that is fair for all”. be acceptable”.
He also did not explicitly ask Macron to resign.
– Bayru-Macron Lunch –
Barnier is the fifth prime minister to serve under Macron since he came to power in 2017, with each prime minister having served for successively shorter periods.
Given the structure of the National Assembly, there is no guarantee that Barnier’s successor will last longer.
Loyalist Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Macron’s centrist ally François Bayrou have been seen as potential contenders, as has former Socialist prime minister and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Bayeru, 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 scheduled to meet with Brun-Pivet and Gerard Larcher, speaker of the upper house of the Senate.
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