PARIS: On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier successfully withstood the first litmus test for his new government when a left-wing motion of no confidence was unable to secure enough votes to topple his center-right coalition.
Barnier was appointed prime minister by President Emmanuel Macron last month following a quick election that resulted in a divided parliament. Barnier’s administration is weak, propped up by the far right and reviled by leftist legislators who submitted the no-confidence vote on Friday.
Since the far-right National Rally (RN) party was required to support the no-confidence resolution in order to pass, RN MPs had made it clear they were hesitant to support it, hence the motion was always unlikely to pass.
Just 197 legislators supported the proposal on Tuesday, falling well short of the required 289 votes. The parliament’s president and speaker, Yael Braun-Pivet, declared, “The motion has not been adopted.”
Now, all eyes will be on Barnier’s first budget plan, which is anticipated to be released on Thursday. To reduce the ever-increasing deficit, it is expected to include drastic tax increases and spending reductions totaling over 60 billion euros ($65.9 billion).
The next tough test of Barnier’s fledgling administration will be passing the budget bill.
Marine Le Pen of the RN stated that she wished to “give a chance” to the prime minister following Barnier’s presentation of his government’s policy platform last week. She did, however, draw certain red lines, stating that any tax rises must be made up for by higher spending power for the middle and lower classes.
