December 6, 2024
The French parliament votes to oust the government.
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French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Michel Barnier stand at attention during commemorations marking the 106th anniversary of the armistice ending World War I on November 11, 2024.(Photo by Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)
Macronism has died its second death. On December 4, France’s National Assembly overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Michel Barnier, now the shortest-serving head of government under the Fifth Republic. When President Emmanuel Macron appointed the 73-year-old former Brexit negotiator to the post in September, it was a long-shot bid to retain control of government. The premier’s main task was to secure a 2025 budget that would safeguard the president’s pro-business agenda while charting a path for severe deficit reduction in the face of mounting concerns over French state finances.
But the votes just weren’t there. Leading a minority coalition tying parliamentary Macronists to Barnier’s center-right Républicains, the prime minister could count on the support of barely more than 200 MPs in the lower house (289 votes are needed for a majority). Even that “common foundation,” as surrogates and the press coined the rickety Macronist-Républicains alliance, proved weak from the start. Since the government was formed, the parties in the coalition and their leadership have been prone to infighting and competitive posturing.
With the math against him, Barnier had little choice but to throw down the gauntlet on December 2, when he announced he would use a special constitutional provision to force a social security financing bill through parliament without a vote from the National Assembly. By invoking “49.3,” Barnier exposed his government to a no-confidence motion, immediately submitted by the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP). The votes of 331 MPs—mostly from the left and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN)—were more than enough to block Barnier and oust the prime minister from power. In parliament, Macron is running out of gas.
The same goes for the president’s standing with the broader public. Barnier’s fall marks the latest turn in a political crisis that began in early June, when Macron took the country by surprise by dissolving the National Assembly. The snap elections that followed fractured the lower house into thirds and revealed broad-based rejection of Macron’s technocratic centrism. Once viewed as front-runners in that campaign, Le Pen and her far-right allies finished with 142 seats in the National Assembly. The NFP eked out a first-place finish with 193 seats thanks to tactical voting in runoffs by moderates and left-wingers seeking to block Le Pen’s party from power. Meanwhile, Macron’s centrist alliance withered to a mere 166 seats, down from the 250 it held in the prior parliament.
Barnier’s tenure provided a short reprieve for the president, who still finds himself at record lows in popularity ratings. According to a November opinion study, 76 percent of the public disapprove of Macron’s handling of the presidency.