And Michel Barnier's government fell. With 331 votes, the prime minister from the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) was ousted by MPs, the left and the far right having combined their votes to topple him in a vote of no confidence. The former European commissioner is leaving less than three months after taking office, becoming the second head of government in the Fifth Republic to be overthrown in a vote of no confidence, after Georges Pompidou in 1962. This historic sanction confirms, if confirmation were needed, the resounding failure of the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale by President Emmanuel Macron on June 9.
To justify that decision, the president explained the goal was to avoid a vote of no confidence against Gabriel Attal's government over his budget, expected in the autumn. Above all, he wanted to have more control over events, according to presidential sources back then. Six months later, the dreaded scenario has played out: The government fell on the social security budget, coming full circle.
But what damage has been done in the process: A period of stress and tension for the country, at a time when the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), the big winner of the European elections, had never seemed so close to power; a legislative ballot organized in haste, without allowing democratic debate to take off; weeks of power vacancy, with a government confined to day-to-day affairs, while deficits continued to grow; the RN becoming master of the game, both in governing (Barnier partly gave in to its demands) and in toppling Barnier (the left agreeing to be co-responsible in that); a degradation of the image of politics... And, eventually, all that time was wasted, to the detriment of the French people, only to return to square one.
Party responsibilities
In a boomerang effect, the pressure came back on Macron. From Saudi Arabia, the president asserted that he had no regrets, assuming that he had wanted to "give the floor back to the people" and placing the "responsibility" for the situation on "the French people," who voted on June 30 and July 7. Macron has always refused to take responsibility for the failure of the decision he made. "On the evening of the second round, it will be nobody's fault," he proclaimed between the two rounds of the parliamentary elections, as the possibility of an RN victory on July 7 took shape, before being averted thanks to the "republican front" formed by other parties.
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