French Government Toppled: Here Is What To Know (image @MichelBarnier)

Paris, France: France plunged to yet another political turmoil as Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government has lost a confidence vote in the National Assembly. The blow call an end to the rightwing PM’s mere three months of holding the office, and therefore an end to the beleaguered minority coalition. The French government, which has been on its toe for the past few months, braces for the deepening political rises. With the fall of the government, questions on the country’s budget next year were raised. This is the first time since 1962 in the history of Parsi for a government to be toppled by non-confidence vote

A total of 331 legislators, a clear majority, in France’s 577-seat lower house of parliament on Wednesday voted to remove 73-year-old Barnier’s centrist minority government. It was a joint movement, as far-left, and hard right unite to pass the motion after Barnier used special powers to push through budget measures without a parliamentary vote.

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Following the vote, Parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet confirmed Barnier would now have to “submit his resignation” to President Emmanuel Macron and declared the session closed. Bernier will resign as PM on Thursday morning. He had warned before the vote that France would be “plunged to the unknown”.

Responding to the issue, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said pressure was now piling up on President Macron even though she was not calling for his resignation. She added that Macron alone had the last say on the matter.

Macron’s office said his office will address the country in a televised message Thursday evening. The President faces worst political crisis comparing to his two terms as President. The 2025 budget is uncertain, and he is in trouble looking up on whom to appoint as next Prime Minister. No new parliament election can be conducted before July 2025, and his option for the PM pick are narrow given the deeply divided state of the National Assembly.

Macron, whose second term as the President will end in 2027, is not obliged to step down himself. Ruling out any scenarios of resigning, he called it “political fiction”. At the same time, left and far right wing called for his exit.

Mathilde Panot, the head of the parliamentary faction of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters, “We are now calling on Macron to go,” and urged for “early presidential elections” to solve a deepening political crisis.

Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, was personally appointed by Macron as the PMm in September after a snap election in July resulted in a hung parliament. His government is France’s first to be toppled in a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years.

In 1962, Georges Pompidou’s government was defeated, when Charles de Gaulle was president. Barnier’s government became the shortest of any administration of France’s Fifth Republic, which began in 1958.

The left and far right punished Barnier for opting to use special constitutional powers to ram part of an unpopular budget, which sought 60 billion euros ($63bn) in savings in an effort to shrink the deficit, through parliament without a final vote. France has a public deficit hitting approximately 6.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) and Barnier has been eager to bring the deficit down in line with EU rules, which require countries to have a budget deficit ratio of 3 percent, as per report.

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Reportedly, any new prime minister would face the same challenges as Barnier in getting bills, including the 2025 budget, adopted by a divided parliament.

An an option, Macron could alternatively ask Barnier and his ministers to stay on in a caretaker capacity while he takes time to identify a prime minister able to attract sufficient cross-party support to pass legislation. A caretaker government could either propose emergency legislation to roll over the tax-and-spend provisions in the 2024 budget into 2025, or invoke special powers to pass the draft 2025 budget by decree. However, jurists say this is a legal grey area and the political cost would be huge.