Extremist parties are playing “Russian roulette” with the future of France as they prepare to bring down the government, the country’s interior minister has said.

Bruno Retailleau issued the dire warning on Tuesday as no-confidence motions in Michel Barnier, the prime minister, were presented to the National Assembly before a vote on Wednesday evening.

The right-wing populist National Rally (RN) has pledged to support far-left MPs from the New Popular Front coalition, meaning Mr Barnier has little chance of survival after just three months in office.

“We are in a critical moment for France,” Mr Retailleau told TF1. 

“We risk chaos, we risk a financial crisis” similar to the “public debt crisis in Greece in 2008”, he said.

Mr Retailleau continued: “It is not those who are rich who are the first to be impacted, it is the most modest, the most fragile.

“And during this time we have a part of the political class playing Russian roulette. Let’s wake up and prevent what seems inevitable – chaos.”

Mr Retailleau was particularly critical of Marine Le Pen of the RN, saying she was “totally irresponsible – irresponsible because she is going to mix her votes and those of her deputies with those of the far-left”.