Michel Barnier is facing a battle to survive until Christmas as polls show more than half of the nation back a no-confidence vote in France’s new prime minister.

According to a survey published on Saturday in La Tribune Dimanche, 53 per cent of respondents want to oust the former Brexit negotiator just months after he was appointed.

“It’s a return to square one,” said Brice Teinturier, deputy CEO of polling company Ipsos. “We find ourselves in the same situation as five months ago, the day after the second round of the legislative elections. The lines are not moving.”

As an Alpine mountaineer accustomed to scaling summits, “le Savoyard”, as the lanky 73-year-old is known, is facing a Mont-Blanc of domestic difficulties as he seeks to pass a budget to avoid financial meltdown amid spiralling French deficit and debt.

To make matters worse, French unions have called strikes and demonstrations across various sectors starting this week.

Farmers furious at stifling norms, unfair competition and an impending EU trade deal with South American countries, were the first to act.