By Aurelien Breeden
A no-confidence vote against the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier of France was handily defeated on Tuesday. But there is more drama to come, as the lack of a legislative majority causes deep political uncertainty.
What happened?
An alliance of left-wing lawmakers known as the New Popular Front tried to topple Barnier by bringing a no-confidence motion to the floor of the National Assembly, France’s lower and more powerful house of Parliament.
It received only 197 votes in favor, falling well short of the 289-vote majority it needed. If it had passed, President Emmanuel Macron would have had to appoint a new prime minister.
Everyone — including the New Popular Front — knew the no-confidence motion was almost certain to fail. But it still served as a symbolic protest by the French left. It is deeply opposed to Barnier, a veteran politician from the right-wing Republican party.
Barnier and his Cabinet, the product of a tenuous coalition of centrists and conservatives, were appointed in September by Macron.
“I do not need to be reminded that this is a minority government,” Barnier told lawmakers in the National Assembly. But, he added, “there is no absolute majority in this assembly — for anyone.”
How did we get here?
The National Assembly has been split into three rough blocs since snap elections were held in July. The New Popular Front and other left-wing lawmakers have 193 seats, Macron’s centrist coalition has 164 and the far-right National Rally and its allies 141. The Republican party and its allies hold only 47 seats.
France’s left-wing parties have been fuming ever since. They came out ahead in seats won in the election, so they feel they should have been able to form a government. But the New Popular Front was undermined by internal divisions and a refusal to compromise on its platform, and Macron did not give them that chance, as is his right under the French Constitution.
Even though the no-confidence motion was doomed to fail, it was the left’s way of keeping the government on its toes and signaling its resolute opposition to a government that, in its eyes, is an aberration that does not reflect French voters’ desire for change.
“You should never have stood before me,” Olivier Faure, the head of the Socialist Party, told Barnier in the National Assembly as he presented the no-confidence motion. “You cannot disregard the violence of this democratic hijacking.”
The left is unlikely to relent in the coming months.
What’s next?
Barnier will face a crucial test in the coming weeks as he tries to pass a budget to rein in France’s ballooning deficits. He wants to slash government spending and temporarily raise taxes on the country’s biggest and most profitable companies, and on its wealthiest citizens.
But it will be extremely difficult to navigate a deeply divided National Assembly. No party or bloc is even close to having a majority, meaning that none of them can govern — or topple the government — on their own. France is not used to this.
To successfully pass a future no-confidence motion, the left needs the far-right National Rally party to support it. The party said before Tuesday’s vote that it would not do so.
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