A speech about the National Rally leader Michel Barnier’s “sample” criticism of the budget and “taxes, taxes and more taxes”
The budget brought tensions to a boil. The National Rally wanted more changes than Mr. Barnier would give them, including a reduction in France’s contribution to the E.U. budget and a raft of spending cuts. The party is thought to have another reason for ousting his government. The case against Ms Le Pen might result in a ban from politics for five years, after she is found guilty of using European Union funds to pay National Rally staff. That would mean she would be ineligible to run for president in national elections in 2027.
During the debate, Barnier described the vote as “a moment of truth, of responsibility.” He said that he had not taken pleasure in proposing difficult measures in the budget and that he had developed it alongside both chambers of the French parliament.
The budget that sparked the political conflagration is not yet passed and the economic markets may be facing a challenge in the coming days.
Despite her party’s demands for more purchasing power for French consumers, who have suffered significant rises in their cost of living, Barnier had “just given us crumbs,” she said, to applause from her fellow National Rally lawmakers. “Your only answer has been taxes, taxes and more taxes.”
The fate of France’s prime minister: the legacy of 50 years of political activism on the far-right, left-wing, and anti-social agendas
At 73, he is the oldest politician to serve as premier in France’s modern history. He has served the shortest time in the post since he took office.
Barnier’s political career spans over 50 years and includes time as a French foreign minister and a European Union commissioner. He won praise for his years-long efforts to negotiate terms for Britain’s departure from the EU, known as Brexit.
Barnier was accused of leading a government without democratic legitimacy by his critics in parliament, which means that appointing a new government may be difficult, unless one of the blocs can find enough support from other parts of the political spectrum.
Marine Le Pen, a strong proponent of more muscular immigration restrictions and anti-crime policies, criticized Barnier to his face during the no-confidence debate Wednesday, saying he had proposed a technocratic budget that refused “to tackle the causes of the dizzying increase in security concerns and crime faced by the country.”
The last legislative elections were held a year after the French Constitution states that new elections cannot be held until next summer. Leading up to the vote, Macron vowed to serve out his term ending in 2027, but will now need to appoint a new prime minister. With the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, split into three major blocs — the far-right National Rally, the left-wing coalition New Popular Front and Macron’s centrists — the way forward for Europe’s second-biggest economy is expected to be rocky.
After the snap elections in which no one won a majority, the president named Barnier as the new prime minister.
Nobody knows what will happen next. What is certain is the strength of the far right in France. It can take down a government with its ambitions, now it has shown they can. France is being held hostage, with no end in sight.
The National Rally won the most votes during the summer, and this is what Mr. Barnier depended on from the beginning. The party of Ms. Le Pen had fun with it. Jordan Bardella, the party’s candidate forprime minister, said that Barnier would be under “surveillance.” Some on the far right were positive about Mr. Barnier’s appointment. They pointed to his promises in the 2021 presidential primary for the Republicans, including a three-to-five-year moratorium on immigration, as evidence of his ideological compatibility. His choice of a hard-line interior minister was further encouragement.