By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
PARIS (Worthy News) – The French government was facing collapse Monday after far-right and left-wing parties said they would back a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Michel Barnier, despite his warnings it could further threaten the nation’s already challenging economy.
Monday’s standoff was sparked by Barnier’s decision to use a constitutional mechanism called Article 49.3, which allows for legislation to be adopted without a vote but opens the door to no-confidence motions.
He made the move after a last-minute concession was not enough to win support from the influential far-right National Rally (RN).
Barnier warned lawmakers that France has reached its “moment of truth,” as far-right leader Marine Le Pen was set to join a left-wing coalition to topple his government as soon as this week.
RN leader Marine Le Pen confirmed her party would table its no-confidence motion but would also vote for any similar bill from other parties. “The French have had enough,” she said.
“Maybe they thought things would get better with Michel Barnier, but they were even worse.”
RN ROLE
In a June snap election, the National Rally became the largest party in the lower house of parliament.
Analysts say this transformed Le Pen into Paris’s most influential power broker.
Although Barnier submitted to nearly all of Le Pen’s demands to tweak France’s 2025 budget, she said her party still wouldn’t back the bill, paving the way for a government collapse.
Mathilde Panot, from the hard-left France Unbowed party, agrees, saying: “Faced with this umpteenth denial of democracy, we will censure the government…”
The timing is particularly hazardous for France’s finances as the government must adopt a budget by year-end or use untested emergency legislation to avoid a shutdown.
France’s troubles have rattled investors amid concerns about the impact on the European Union’s economy, where the other economic powerhouse, Germany, faces a crisis in its automobile sector.
PENSIONS CONTROVERSY
Barnier didn’t accept the government’s plan to make significant savings by delaying the indexation of pensions to inflation.
The prime minister “did not wish to respond to the request of the 11 million National Rally voters,” Le Pen told reporters after the announcement. He said that everyone should shoulder their responsibilities, so we will shoulder ours.”
Analysts caution that the uncertainty around the country’s political direction and its budget has pushed bond investors to punish France’s sovereign debt relative to its peers.
These troubles raised France’s borrowing costs to as high as Greece’s at one point last week, leading Barnier to speak of a “storm” in financial markets if he is dismissed from power.
If he loses the confidence vote, President Emmanuel Macron must appoint a new prime minister, though this could potentially be Barnier.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned Tuesday that Europe remains incapable of defending itself without American military support, saying European nations would need to more than double current defense spending to stand on their own.
TikTok has agreed to settle a landmark U.S. lawsuit accusing social-media companies of deliberately addicting and harming children, just days before the case was due to go to trial, attorneys for the plaintiffs confirmed Tuesday.
India and the European Union have finalized a historic free trade agreement after nearly two decades of negotiations, leaders said Tuesday, in a pact set to reshape global commerce amid rising economic uncertainty and strained ties with the United States.
Senate Republicans’ hopes of finishing the government funding process without incident were dashed over the weekend with a second fatal shooting of a protester in Minneapolis.
Nations around the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day with ceremonies and warnings against antisemitism and historical distortion, honoring the victims of the Nazi genocide as the number of living survivors continues to decline.
Bangladeshi migrant workers say they were deceived into traveling to Russia for civilian jobs, only to be forced into military service and sent to fight in Ukraine, according to an investigation published Tuesday.
The U.S. dollar is coming under pressure in the early weeks of 2026 as investors reassess long-held assumptions about the stability of the world’s dominant currency amid rising geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, financial markets and analysts say.