The neo-liberal French government is likely headed toward collapse this week after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally confirmed that it would join with the left on a motion of no confidence after Prime Minister Michel Barnier attempted to push through financial austerity measures through without a vote in the parliament.
After weeks of negotiations, Prime Minister Michel Barnier turned to a controversial legal loophole in the French constitution, article 49.3, which allows his government to pass through effective cuts to social security benefits without a vote in the National Assembly.
Barnier, the former EU Brexit negotiator, was installed in the Hôtel Matignon as PM by President Emmanuel Macron in September following a three-way split in the parliament after Macron’s disastrous decision to call for snap legislative elections in July following his party’s drubbing to Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) party in the EU elections in June.
The centrist establishment Les Républicains politician was pitched as a steady hand to steer the French state through the country’s deep political divide and the looming debt crisis, which threatens to see EU funding cut unless fiscal reforms are implemented. In total, Barnier has called for 60 billion euros ($63 billion) in tax hikes and spending cuts in his contentious budget.