French PM meets Macron to resign after no-confidence vote

PARIS

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Dec. 5 met Emmanuel Macron to submit his resignation after losing a vote of no confidence in parliament, with the president urgently seeking ways to halt growing political and financial chaos.

Poised to be contemporary France's shortest-serving premier, Barnier arrived at the Elysee Palace at noon for the resignation formality, with the outgoing premier and government constitutionally obliged to step down after the defeat in parliament.

A majority of lawmakers on Dec. 4 supported the no-confidence vote proposed by the hard left and backed by the far right headed by Marine Le Pen.

Barnier's record-quick ejection comes after snap parliamentary elections this summer, which resulted in a hung parliament with no political force able to form an overall majority and the far right holding the key to the government's survival.

The trigger for Barnier's ouster was his 2025 budget plan including austerity measures that were unacceptable to a majority in parliament, but that he argued were necessary to stabilize France's finances.

On Dec. 2 he had forced through a social security financing bill without a vote.

The successful no-confidence motion canceled the government's entire financing plan, leading to an automatic renewal of the current budget into next year, unless any new government can somehow rush through approval of a new budget by Christmas, an unlikely scenario.

"France probably won't have a 2025 budget," said ING Economics in a note, predicting that the country "is entering a new era of political instability."

Moody's, a ratings agency, warned that Barnier's fall "deepens the country's political stalemate" and "reduces the probability of a consolidation of public finances."

Macron now has the unenviable task of picking a viable successor.

The president was to address the nation at 10 p.m. Turkish time on Dec. 5.

Macron has more than two years of his presidential term left, but some opponents are calling on him to resign.