Michel Barnier: French government on brink of collapse as PM faces vote
www.bbc.com
Barnier, who was appointed by Emmanuel Macron just three months ago, is widely expected to lose a no-confidence vote.

Summary

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier faces a no-confidence vote on Wednesday, just three months after his appointment by President Emmanuel Macron.

Opposition parties are uniting against Barnier after he used special powers to pass a controversial budget, including €60bn in tax hikes and spending cuts, without parliamentary approval.

France’s divided parliament, stemming from summer elections, has left Barnier’s minority government unable to govern effectively.

If ousted, Barnier will serve as caretaker PM while Macron, under pressure, selects a replacement, potentially prolonging France’s instability.

  • @[email protected]English
    34•11 hours ago

    There would be no instability if Macron had given the government to the majority winning left coalition instead of forcing a center coalition on the basis of never supporting a left coalition.

    Macron would literally burn France down, before accepting the peoples choice. So much for “liberalism”

    • Tiefling IRLEnglish
      10•8 hours ago

      Right wingers would rather watch the world burn than give minorities rights

    • HumaniusEnglish
      1•8 hours ago

      While I dont think Macron made the best call there, its not entirely accurate to say the left coalition won a majority. They won 182 out of 577 seats (31.5%) which makes them the largest minority, but not a majority.

      Coalitions don’t necessarily include the largest minority. If the other parties for whatever reason find the differences too inreconsilable, then you cannot form a coalition.

      • HobbitFoot English
        5•8 hours ago

        In a lot of parliaments, it is traditional to give the largest group a first crack in forming a government, which that group did in good faith. Macron chose to create a minority government with his party instead.

        Yeah, this precedence doesn’t exist in the French Republic because they chose to make a government with all the bad sides of presidential and parliamentary governments, but it wasn’t a wise decision based on how a parliament should be run.