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French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed not to resign before the end of his term, taking on an opposition party that he said “chose chaos” by defeating the prime minister in a historic no-confidence vote.
“The mandate you democratically entrusted to me is for five years, and I will fully exercise it until the end of my term,” Macron said Thursday in his first speech since the overthrow of Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government.
“My responsibility is to ensure the continuity of the country, the proper functioning of our institutions, our independence, and the protection of all of you.”
Macron’s term ends in 2027, but pressure is mounting from opposition parties for him to resign early. He must now name a new head of government who must steer a parliament as deeply divided as the one that ousted Barnier on Wednesday night.
The president harshly criticized the far-right Kuomintang party and the left-wing coalition National Front, and said he would name a new prime minister “within the next few days.” “They chose chaos,” he said, adding that “all they were thinking about was the presidential election: how to prepare for it, how to provoke it, how to calm it down.”
The French parliament has been at an impasse since President Macron called a snap election in the summer and was defeated. As a result, Congress has split into three groups, with no group having a clear majority. Under the French constitution, the president cannot call new parliamentary elections until next July at the earliest.
Barnier’s three-month tenure as prime minister was the shortest in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, and the vote of no confidence over his harsh deficit-cutting budget marked the second time since 1958 that the government had been overthrown.
The next administration must pass a budget by the end of the year. President Macron said he would submit a special fiscal law to parliament by mid-December to ensure “the continuity of public services and national life.” . . govern until there is a majority in parliament.
Barnier’s government collapsed without adopting a controversial 2025 budget. The budget includes 60 billion euros in tax increases and spending cuts aimed at reducing the budget deficit from more than 6% this year to around 5% next year.
The main reason for this was that the RN carried out its threat to vote the budget unless all of the far-right party’s “red lines” were met, despite some last-minute concessions from Barnier. It was.
Deep divisions in parliament will continue to make budget deliberations difficult, and the selection of a new prime minister who can ensure political stability will be complicated.
Mr Macron must now decide whether to rebuild an alliance similar to Mr Barnier’s République party, or create a new system. Centrist politicians in Macron’s camp have been trying to persuade moderate left-wing parties to break with the far-left party La France Ansemeise, but such proposals have so far been rejected.
The LFI has vowed to “automatically condemn” any prime minister who is not elected from the left. Meanwhile, RN leader Marine Le Pen said on Thursday that the party would oppose a left-wing prime minister. “There will be no prime minister from the Nouveau Front People’s Party,” she told CNews on Thursday.
President Macron thanked Barnier, a veteran right-wing politician and lead Brexit negotiator, for his work. The former prime minister tendered his resignation early Thursday, but was asked to remain in an interim role until Mr Macron appoints a replacement.
