The French government was toppled Wednesday after far-left and far-right lawmakers joined forces to pass a no-confidence measure against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his Cabinet.
Barnier, a conservative who held the post of prime minister for barely three months, is now obliged to tender his resignation, and that of his government, to French President Emmanuel Macron.
It was the first time since 1962 that a French government was ousted like this. The move is expected to usher in a period of political uncertainty in the second-biggest economic power in the European Union.
Barnier’s foes in France’s lower house of Parliament needed 299 votes to oust him.
They got 331 after Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally joined with the leftist coalition in the chamber to oust the Barnier government.
“In a republic, only the people are sovereign,” Mathilde Panot, the leader of the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) parliamentary group, said after the vote.
Barnier, who was appointed by Macron in September, told French TV on Tuesday that it was “possible” he could survive. But as the votes were tallied it quickly became clear that he was about to become the head of the shortest–lived government in French history.
Macron’s political future is also on the line.
Under the French system, Macron is responsible for appointing prime ministers to be approved by Parliament. But he cannot dissolve the legislative body again until next year.
While he could try to bring Barnier back in, appoint a successor or an apolitical government of technocrats, all would be vulnerable to dethroning by the far-right.
If Macron “cannot get a government together with the support of a majority in parliament, he is going out and going to come under increasing pressure to resign,” Douglas Webber, an emeritus professor at the INSEAD business school, based in Paris, told NBC News on Tuesday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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