France on the Brink: Prime Minister Michel Barnier Faces Devastating No-Confidence Vote – A Nation in Crisis

The minority government of French Prime Minister Michel Barnier lost a no-confidence vote in parliament, making it the shortest-lived Fifth Republic government and the first to be overthrown in this way since 1962. The resolution, which was introduced by the leftist NFP alliance and surprisingly backed by Marine Le Pen’s far-right grouping, received 331 MPs in total, more than the 288 votes needed to overthrow the government.

Barnier, a conservative veteran who has only been prime minister for three months, is now required to retire from office and hand over his cabinet to President Emmanuel Macron. Following this summer’s hasty legislative elections that left the house hung, Barnier was quickly removed. Since no party held a majority, the votes of the far-right became essential for the government’s survival. With more than two years left in his mandate, President Emmanuel Macron now has the difficult chore of choosing a new prime minister.

Amid a stalemate on the austerity budget for the following year, the National Assembly discussed the move. Following Barnier’s avoidance of a parliamentary vote on a social security finance plan earlier this week, tensions increased. The no-confidence vote is the first successful effort to topple a government since President Charles de Gaulle overthrew Georges Pompidou’s administration in 1962. In addition, Barnier’s administration has the shortest term of any Fifth Republic government since its founding in 1958. Shortly before the pivotal vote, Macron returned to Paris from a three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia, reorienting his attention from global diplomacy to handling the growing domestic crisis.