Three-month-old government of Michel Barnier could be felled by combined vote from parties of left and far right over controversial budget
President Emmanuel Macron, on his way back from a presidential visit to Saudi Arabia earlier on Wednesday and under pressure from both leftist and far-right MPs to step down, said talk of him potentially resigning was “make-believe politics”.
Macron told reporters that he was “here because I’ve been elected twice by the French people,” adding: “We must not scare people with such things. We have a strong economy.”
The leader of the mainstream centre-left Socialist party (PS), part of the leftist NFP alliance, told Le Monde that Macron needed to make his futire intentions clear if the Barnier government does indeed fall.
“Rather than dropping little remarks during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Macron now needs to speak to the French people,” he said. “How can he leave the French people in this uncertainty just before Christmas?”
A note on the mechanics of the afternoon and early evening: the parliamentary debate kicks off at 4pm local time (3pm GMT) with a discussion of an unrelated matter tabled by the radical left LFI.
That means the debate on the two no-confidence motions should in principle begin at about 4.45pm. The motions, one presented by the left-leaning NFP alliance and the other by the far right RN, will be debated together.
One speaker from each parliamentary group will address the motions, starting with MP Eric Coquerel for LFI.
