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
Taiwan’s parliament approved a nearly $7.6 billion plan Thursday to expand the island’s military drone and other unmanned systems as it prepares for a potential Chinese attack.
Ratko Mladic, the bullish Bosnian Serb general who became feared as the “Butcher of the Balkans” after his forces besieged the Bosnian capital in the 1990s and carried out Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, has died. He was 84.
The U.S. Army is moving ahead with plans to build nuclear microreactors at five military installations, part of a $2.2 billion energy-security push aimed at keeping critical bases powered even if outside electric grids are disrupted.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” adding a symbolic but sharp new twist to a growing trade war between the United States and Canada.
Two people were killed Thursday in an apparent relationship-related attack at a school near the German capital Berlin, with authorities detaining a 19-year-old German man as the prime suspect, police and officials said.
Violence erupted around Indonesia’s parliament in the capital, Jakarta, on Thursday night as police fired tear gas and deployed water cannon against protesters, while authorities detained scores of people accused of seeking to exploit nationwide demonstrations to create unrest.Violence erupted around Indonesia’s parliament in the capital, Jakarta, on Thursday night as police fired tear gas and deployed water cannon against protesters, while authorities detained scores of people accused of seeking to exploit nationwide demonstrations to create unrest.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council that Hamas has not yet carried out its pledge to disarm, warning that continued weapons activity, tunnel operations, and obstruction inside Gaza are threatening to derail the U.S.-backed peace framework.