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 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
In a major victory for religious liberty and parental rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reversed a lower court ruling that had upheld New York State’s strict vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, directing the appeals court to reconsider the case under newly strengthened constitutional protections.
A Hindu nonprofit organization is moving forward with plans to construct a massive 155-foot Hindu idol of Lord Murugan in rural Chatham County—an enormous structure that, once completed, would stand taller than the Statue of Liberty’s figure.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon late Monday targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, including a training site used by the group’s elite Radwan Force, the military said in a statement Tuesday.
Archaeologists have uncovered one of the longest and best-preserved sections of Jerusalem’s Hasmonean-period city wall, a massive fortification dating to the Maccabean era, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.
President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled a $12 billion bailout package aimed at supporting U.S. farmers who have absorbed the brunt of global market disruptions and retaliatory tariffs stemming from the administration’s ongoing trade war with China.
Federal agencies have canceled or significantly scaled back 43 wasteful government contracts worth a combined ceiling value of $3.5 billion, saving taxpayers $222 million, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced in a Dec. 6 post on X.
Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, half of the nation’s college students report feeling less comfortable attending controversial public events on campus and nearly half are less comfortable voicing opinions on controversial subjects in class.