Concerned after Michel Barnier was ousted by parliament after mere three months in office, French President Emmanuel Macron will seek ways out of France’s political crisis on Thursday.
Barnier became the first prime minister in France to be ousted by parliament in over six decades and now will go down in history as the shortest serving PM since the Fifth Republic began in 1958.
On Wednesday, a majority of 331 MPs in the 577-member chamber in France voted to oust Barnier’ s government, approving a no-confidence motion proposed by the hard left but which crucially was backed by the far right headed by Marine Le Pen.
It was the first successful no-confidence vote since 1962 when Georges Pompidou’s government was defeated. At that time, Charles de Gaulle was the president.
Barnier’s sooner-than-expected exit comes after snap parliamentary elections this summer, which resulted in a hung parliament with no party having an overall majority and the far right holding the key to the government’s survival.
Why was no-confidence motion brought?
The no-confidence motion, brought by the hard left in the National Assembly, came amid a standoff over next year’s austerity budget, after Barnier, on Monday, forced through a social security financing bill without a vote.
Barnier is due to present Macron his government’s resignation on Thursday morning.
The address of the president to the nation is expected at 1900 GMT, the Elysee said.
Macron will now have to engage again in picking a viable successor with over two years of his presidential term left. Meanwhile, there are some opponents who have been calling him to resign.
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