The French government was toppled Wednesday after far-left and far-right lawmakers joined forces to pass a no-confidence measure against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his Cabinet.
Barnier, who held the post of prime minister for barely three months, is now obliged to tender his resignation, and that of his government, to French President Emmanuel Macron.
It was the first time since 1962 that a French government was ousted like this. The move is expected to usher in a period of political uncertainty in the second-biggest economic power in the European Union.
Barnier’s foes in France’s lower house of Parliament needed 299 votes to oust him.
They got 331 after Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally joined with the leftist coalition in the chamber to oust the Barnier government.
This is also a threat to President Macron.
Under the French system, Macron is responsible for appointing prime ministers to be approved by Parliament. But he cannot dissolve the legislative body again until next year.
While he could try to bring Barnier back in or appoint a successor or a temporary government of technocrats, they too would be vulnerable to being ousted in a legislative body where no party holds a majority.
Currently, it consists of three major blocs: Macron’s centrist allies, the left-wing New Popular Front coalition, and the far-right National Rally.
If Macron “cannot get a government together with the support of a majority in parliament, he is going out and going to come under increasing pressure to resign,” Douglas Webber, an emeritus professor at the INSEAD business school, based in Paris, told NBC News on Tuesday.
