President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, December 4, in the oasis of Al-Ula. He was "tranquil" and "master of his words," said former minister Jack Lang, a member of the French delegation as president of the Arab World Institute. Meanwhile, in Paris, the fate of Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government, subject to a motion of no confidence, was being decided at the same time. But Macron didn't yield to this unprecedented episode in the history of the Fifth Republic. His return to France was merely brought forward by an hour, to allow him to land at Villacoublay, near Paris, before the inevitable collapse of the government.

On the presidential plane back to Paris, the president invited his ministers Jean-Noël Barrot (foreign affairs), Rachida Dati (culture) and Sébastien Lecornu (armed forces) to lunch. They were also joined by his former foreign affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is the president of the French agency for the development of the Al-Ula Region, as well as architect Jean Nouvel, who is designing a tourist complex in the heart of the desert, and Lang.

The discussion around the table focused extensively on Macron's "maestria" in managing the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral and his preparations for the Paris Olympic Games. At no point did Macron address domestic politics. "When we came close, he artfully avoided it," said a member of the delegation.

Yet the nation was "on the brink of the abyss," simultaneously wrote Macron's first prime minister, Edouard Philippe, on X. The government fell on Wednesday after it took responsibility for the draft budget on social security. A large majority of MPs voted for the motion of no confidence – 331, with a threshold of 288 required. It was a tragic setback for Macron, who had repeatedly justified his June 9 dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale by saying it was to avoid the government collapsing "in the fall, in the middle of the budget."

The prime minister handed in his resignation on Thursday morning. The 73-year-old former European commissioner had already said his farewells to members of Parliament in a speech tinged with sadness and bitterness and to his ministers whom he gathered at his office. "He was very dignified," said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. Barnier's mission as head of a government without a majority, at the mercy of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), was perilous and almost impossible. "Faced with the forces of chaos, it was difficult to embody the forces of hope," summed up the conservative MP from Les Républicains (LR) party, Antoine Vermorel-Marques.

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