Parisiens drink outside a bar Thursday night as a screen plays French President Emmanuel Macron’s address to the nation a day after the government of his hand-picked prime minister, Michel Barnier, was brought down in a no-confidence motion. Photo by Teresa Suarez/EPA-EFE
Dec. 6 (UPI) — French President Emmanuel Macron said he will appoint a new prime minister in the next few days after Michel Barnier, his previous pick, resigned after losing a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly that brought down his government after just 90 days in office.
Macron made the pledge Thursday night in an address on national television in which he said he had asked Barnier to stay on as a caretaker prime minister in the meantime and vowed to see out the remaining two years and four months of his presidency “fully.”
The president, who said he would “appoint in the coming days a prime minister who will form a government of general interest,” was expected to receive several political leaders at the Elysee Palace on Friday starting with those from his own Ensemble center-right coalition.
Macron did not admit blame for the crisis created by his decision to call a snap election in July that produced a hung parliament, instead accusing the far-right and left-wing parties of forming an “anti-republican front” to topple the government.
He said their actions were the antithesis of progress because they opted “not to do but to undo.”
“They insulted their own voters, and they have chosen simply disorder.
“They are not thinking about your lives, let’s be honest. They are thinking of just one thing — the presidential election,” Macron said.
He went on to to explain that his decision to dissolve parliament and call the snap election was misunderstood and that he believed it only right for voters to have their say.
“Many have blamed me for it and I know, many continue to blame me. It’s a fact and it’s my responsibility.
“But I believe it was necessary.”
However, the new government will require backing from at least some in one of the other two main groupings in parliament if it is to stand any chance, with Macron expected to try to split the Socialist Party away from the largest bloc, the left-wing New Popular Front.
Socialist Party First Secretary Olivier Faure said he was going into the negotiations with an open mind and was willing to consider “compromises on every issue” but that it would be on the basis of a “fixed term contract” — signaling fresh National Assembly elections at the earliest opportunity — and that he would not be drawn into a project “to ensure the continuity of Macronism.”
“A left-wing Prime Minister who would be placed there like a cherry on the cake but who would be forced to lead a right-wing policy, that is of no interest,” Faure wrote Friday in a post on X.
“What I want is for us to be able to tell the French people that we will have more justice, that we will resolutely commit to the ecological transition, that we will have public services that work better.”
Names of other potential successors circulating included Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and centrist former presidential candidate Francois Bayrou.
Barnier resigned Thursday, a day after parliament voted 331-244 in favor of a no-confidence motion in his government in a crisis sparked when he forced through a budget containing $63.2 billion of cuts to social security and other government spending that lawmakers strongly opposed.
Macron said the budget, which was withdrawn following Barnier’s removal, would be the top priority of the incoming prime minister.