No-Confidence Vote Topples French Government: What Comes Next?
France has plunged into political chaos after parliamentarians ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier in an historic no-confidence vote, the first of its kind in more than six decades. Sparked by widespread opposition to Barnier's austerity budget, which included €40 billion in spending cuts and €20 billion in tax hikes, the motion united far-left and far-right parties in an unprecedented alliance. The crisis deepens instability in France, leaving President Macron scrambling to appoint a new Prime Minister capable of navigating a fragmented Parliament with no clear majority. It also raises concerns about France's economic governance and its ability to lead within the EU.
William Drozdiak, a Global Fellow with the Wilson Center's Global Europe Program, provides insights into the situation. He describes President Macron's sense of urgency around the need to name a new PM quickly, his meeting with centrist politician François Bayrou, a potential successor to Barnier, and the instability in EU leadership, including the collapse of Germany’s three-party coalition government.
Transcript
No-Confidence Vote Topples French Government: What Comes Next?
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
The immediate consequence of the fall of the government, led by Michel Barnier, will be, an early effort by President Macron to name a successor, possibly as early as this evening, Thursday, December 5th, in order to get the political chaos sorted out before this weekend, when he will unveil the renovated Notre Dame Cathedral in front of 50 or 60 government leaders from around the world, including president-elect Trump, who has been invited.
Today he had lunch with a centrist politician who was very much, not from his party, but, an ally named Francois Bayrou who has previous ministerial experience. He's been, around for 30 or 40 years, sort of an elder statesman, centrist politician who has good ties with both the right and the left. So the hope is that he could find a way to stitch together a majority, in support of a new budget.
For Macron, he also needs the government to pass a budget before the end of this year so that the funding and of government programs and the paying of civil servants can continue without interruption into the new year. So, time is very much of the essence here, unlike this summer, when he took more than two months to appoint Barnier as prime minister.
This crisis comes at a very difficult time for Europe because, the other major power in Europe, Germany, is also going through something of a political crisis. The three party coalition led by Olaf Schultz, the Socialist prime minister, has collapsed, and there will be new elections in Germany and in February. So with weakness in France and Germany, which together have served as sort of the tandem couple that that drives the European Union. Europe is sort of stagnating, in the absence of any resolution of the political problems in both France and Germany.
Guest
William Drozdiak
Author "The Last President of Europe: Emmanuel Macron’s Race to Revive France and Save the World"
Hosted By
Global Europe Program
The Global Europe Program is focused on Europe’s capabilities, and how it engages on critical global issues. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues. We examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our initiatives include “Ukraine in Europe” – an examination of what it will take to make Ukraine’s European future a reality. But we also examine the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE, Europe’s energy security, transatlantic trade disputes, and challenges to democracy. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media. Read more
