Emmannuel Macron’s new government is facing a no-confidence vote just 12 hours after the cabinet was unveiled.
Michel Barnier, France’s Prime Minister, finally announced his new centre-right administration on Saturday – 11 weeks after Macron called a snap election.
Barnier, 73, has given posts such as interior and finance minister to mainstream conservatives and Macron allies, which has prompted outrage from opposition parties.
The new cabinet is composed of Macron’s centre-right Renaissance party and Barnier’s right-wing The Republicans party, along with two other centre-right parties.
The new cabinet is composed of Macron’s centre-right Renaissance party and Barnier’s right-wing The Republicans party, along with two other centre-right parties
Reuters
Politicians from either end of the political spectrum have announced respective plans to undermine the government of Barnier with a no-confidence vote.
If the no-confidence motion went ahead, it would require an absolute majority in parliament, which would mean that the government would have to resign with immediate effect.
François Hollande, former president and member of the Socialist party, called for a no-confidence vote in Barnier’s government.
“A socialist motion of no-confidence seems to me the right solution,” he said. “Michel Barnier’s government is a fragile government.”
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French Prime Minister Michel Barnier arrives to attend a meeting with the newly-named French government
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Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical Left party France Unbowed (LFI), compared the cabinet makeup to a cast of a “disaster movie” that the country has seen before.
“We need to get rid of it as soon as possible,” he said on X.
Hard-right politicians have also criticised the new administration, calling it the “same-old, same-old”.
Jordan Bardella, leader of the hard-Right National Rally (RN), said: “This ‘new’ government signals the return of Macronism through the back door,” Mr Bardella said.
A cut-out depicting French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Michel Barnier is pictured during a demonstration
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“What the French people have twice democratically rejected cannot be allowed to return through pitiful party politics and political calculations. It is therefore a government with no future.”
Hours before the vote was announced, thousands of left-wing individuals who anticipated the right-wing shift of the government, took to the streets to protest.
They called it a failure of leadership and said that the lineup made a joke of the election process, stating that French voters had been betrayed.
The new announcement comes after Macron called for a snap election in June, following Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally party’s success in the European Parliament elections.
The following month, the leftist coalition of the the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most seats, though it failed to secure an overall majority which resulted in a hung parliament.