The motion supported by a coalition of left-wing parties – including socialists, communists, the Greens and left-wing radicals – was approved by only 197 representatives in the lower house of the French parliament, which is far short of the 289 votes needed to overthrow the government. The failure caught no one by surprise, starting with Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party (PS), who tabled the motion, who said the vote was necessary because the new government was formed as a result of an “electoral fraud” that “has never been should have been appointed”.
The socialist politician admitted before the vote that Michel Barnier, who was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron a month ago, “will remain at the head of the country at the end of today’s session with the goodwill of the extreme right, which has taken him under his tutelage.” “Mathematically, without the support of the National Consolidation, your government would fail,” pointed out Cyrielle Chatelain, leader of the Greens’ National Assembly faction, who believed that she discovered in all this “a demonstration of the political agreement between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.”
The opposition right-wing sovereignist party protested against this. “Our faction would heartily vote for the no-confidence motion, but we only judge based on actions,” said party representative Guillaume Bigot in the debate, who indicated that his faction “for now wants to put pressure on the government.” Before the vote, the Prime Minister expressed regret for the “a priori” motion of the left, which “wanted to overthrow him even before he opened his mouth and formed his government.”
Michel Barnier also argued that his government would be illegitimate given its “relative majority” in the National Assembly, which became tripartite with 11 factions following the July 7 parliamentary election. Barnier’s government is supported by the presidential camp, the centrists and the center-right Republicans, the other two camps, the left, which finished in the lead in the elections but was out of the government, and the sovereignist right-wing National Collapse, characterized by Marine Le Pen, could together bring down the government at any time.
The new government wants to gradually reduce the public budget deficit, which will probably exceed 6 percent of GDP this year, i.e. it will be double the upper limit of 3 percent set jointly by the countries of the European Union. The budget, which envisages savings of 60 billion euros, of which 40 in the form of spending cuts and 20 in the form of tax increases, does not enjoy unanimous support among the representatives of the presidential camp. At a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, Economy Minister Antoine Armand tried to convince his EU colleagues of Paris’ budget goals. The agreed goal is to reduce the deficit from 6.1 percent this year to 5 percent next year, and then return to below 3 percent by 2029, two years later than the previous government promised.
The cover image is an illustration. Cover image source: Getty Images
Source: www.portfolio.hu
