Macron blames ‘coali­tion of the irre­spon­si­ble’ for his­toric oust­ing of French gov­ern­ment

On Wednes­day, the Nation­al Assem­bly vot­ed to dis­solve Prime Min­is­ter Michel Barnier’s gov­ern­ment, with 331 out of 577 mem­bers affirm­ing the deci­sion. It is the first suc­cess­ful no-con­fi­dence vote in the French Par­lia­ment since 1962.

Macron blamed the oust­ing of his prime min­is­ter on a “coali­tion of the irre­spon­si­ble” — a com­ment on how the vote was car­ried through with coop­er­a­tion between the hard-left New Pop­u­lar Front alliance and hard-right Nation­al Ral­ly par­ty.

The prime min­is­ter and his Cab­i­net will now leave their posi­tions after just nine weeks. It is a stun­ning rebuke of Macron’s attempts to walk a cen­trist line amid a grow­ing dead­lock in French pol­i­tics.

Macron, as pres­i­dent and head of state, will not be affect­ed by the reshuf­fle and will stay in office until his sec­ond term ends in 2027.

The pres­i­dent is ask­ing Barnier to stay on as a care­tak­er prime min­is­ter while he rush­es to fill the pow­er vac­u­um.

It is a pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion of Macron’s own mak­ing. The pres­i­dent called a snap elec­tion in June, hop­ing that a major­i­ty coali­tion would emerge and bring some “clar­i­fi­ca­tion” to the grid­locked Assem­bly.

The left-wing alliance and cen­trist alliance coor­di­nat­ed the strate­gic removal of their can­di­dates from bal­lots to block the Nation­al Ral­ly from secur­ing what was expect­ed to be a his­toric vic­to­ry. The strat­e­gy worked to a degree, but the president’s hopes for clar­i­fi­ca­tion were dashed.

The New Pop­u­lar Front came out on top and the Ensem­ble alliance came in behind it, but the Nation­al Ral­ly still man­aged to make sig­nif­i­cant gains in the Assem­bly — result­ing in no clear major­i­ty and a hung Par­lia­ment.

In an attempt to appease the increas­ing­ly pow­er­ful right-wing, Macron appoint­ed the con­ser­v­a­tive-lean­ing cen­trist Barnier.

This pleased no one, cul­mi­nat­ing in weeks of grid­lock on attempts to pass France’s 2025 nation­al bud­get. Unable to find com­pro­mise among the war­ring par­ties, Barnier invoked spe­cial pow­ers to force the pas­sage of the bud­get with­out a vote.

The Left revolt­ed with a no-con­fi­dence vote, and the Right sup­port­ed it. Cen­trists called it irre­spon­si­ble, but the two wings called it inevitable.

As the par­ty with the most seats, the left-wing coali­tion has promised to swat down any future prime min­is­ter who does not come from the ranks of its coali­tion.

Addi­tion­al­ly, law­mak­ers across the spec­trum have begun to mur­mur about the neces­si­ty of a res­ig­na­tion from Macron if the Assem­bly has any chance of pass­ing leg­is­la­tion.

Nation­al Ral­ly leader Marine Le Pen appears to be bid­ing time, await­ing a more oppor­tune moment for her next move. She has thus far refused to call for the president’s res­ig­na­tion but warned that polit­i­cal pres­sure will con­tin­ue to mount.

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Macron, who will address the French pub­lic Thurs­day for the first time since the no-con­fi­dence vote, is just try­ing to keep his head above water.

The polit­i­cal enfants ter­ri­bles of the Left, Right, and cen­ter are stuck with one anoth­er until July 2025 — the soon­est that anoth­er snap elec­tion can be called.