It took 288 votes to bring down Michel Barnier’s government. Finally, 331 deputies voted “for” the motion of censure, announced the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun Pivet at 8:25 p.m. At the end of a historic session, the overthrow of the government was sealed by the votes of the National Rally, the largest group in number in the hemicycle which considers its demands insufficiently taken into account in the vote on the 2025 Budget, and by the New Popular Front, which itself tabled the motion of censure voted this evening.
The government of Michel Barnier had taken responsibility for having the Social Security budget for 2025 adopted without a vote, after a week of tense and stagnant debates. “It is not for pleasure that I presented almost only difficult measures in this budget. I would have preferred to distribute money,” he assured about his financing bill, qualified by the left in particular of “austerity” text, in a farewell speech during which he defended his record and that of his ministers a few minutes before the vote. For his last words as Prime Minister, he called on each MP to “responsibility” in a “moment of truth”.
Just three months after his appointment – his government holds the record for the shortest lifespan with 89 days in office – Michel Barnier, 73, must therefore immediately present his resignation to the Head of State, in accordance with the Constitution. He thus became the first censored head of government since Georges Pompidou in 1962, and the most short-lived Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic. Until the last moment, Emmanuel Macron had refused the idea of censorship. From Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, the President of the Republic said on Tuesday that he “does not believe in the vote of censure”, pointing out the “unbearable cynicism” of the RN if it added its votes to those of the NFP, and on the side of the PS a “complete loss of bearings”.
Spikes launched in the direction of Emmanuel Macron
The speeches continued in the Assembly before the vote. In defense of the motion of censure, Eric Coquerel (LFI) criticized the “illegitimacy” of a government not reflecting the result of the legislative elections, and refusing to reconsider pension reform. Boris Vallaud, boss of PS deputies, accusing Michel Barnier of having “locked himself into a humiliating tête-à-tête” with RN leader Marine Le Pen. A blow was also sent towards the head of state becoming, according to him, “an obstacle, and in no way a solution. Today we are voting to censure your government but, more than anything, we are tolling the death knell of “a mandate: that of the president”, declared the deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis at the opening of the debates.
Despite the numerous concessions obtained in the home stretch, the leader of the far-right group for her part castigated the policy proposed by the Prime Minister: “you have only provided one answer, tax […] the worst policy would be not to censor such a budget”, declared Marine Le Pen. Faced with “popular distrust”, it is up to Emmanuel Macron to “conclude whether he is able to remain or not” president, she added, also fueling the hypothesis of a resignation of the President of the Republic, which the latter dismisses.
A nomination this week?
The president intends to appoint a successor to Matignon “quickly”, according to all his interlocutors. The names of the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, the LR Xavier Bertrand or the president of the MoDem François Bayrou are mentioned again, as this summer, for Matignon. An appointment before the ceremony with great fanfare for the reopening of Notre-Dame on Saturday is “possible” but not guaranteed, estimates a close friend of the president to AFP, who recalls Emmanuel Macron’s often long delays in matters of rearrangements. “Nothing has been decided”, for the moment the presidential entourage is limited to responding.
Within the common base, which was already struggling to support Michel Barnier (LR, Modem, Horizons and Macronists) in a united manner, the cracks could widen on the strategies of this post-censorship. The Republicans are already threatening to take back their freedom. Their leader Laurent Wauquiez emphasizes that his party’s commitment to the government coalition in September “was only valid for Michel Barnier”. For his part, the leader of the Macronist deputies Gabriel Attal proposes to enter into a “non-censorship” agreement from LR to the PS to escape the supervision of the RN.