French government faces no-confidence motion as Barnier fights for survival

The French government appears likely to fall this week after leftwing and far-right parties lodged motions of no confidence in response to the prime minister's decision to push through a belt-tightening budget without a vote.

- Kim Willsher

If passed by MPs, the motions, which will be put to a vote in the national assembly tomorrow, will bring down the government and force Michel Barnier's resignation after only two and a half months.

The New Popular Front (NFP), a leftwing coalition that includes the Socialists, Greens, hard-left France Unbowed and the Communist party, had already warned it would put forward a motion to censure the government if it used the "49.3" constitutional clause to force through the social security legislation.

Yesterday, Marine Le Pen, of the far-right National Rally (RN) increased the pressure on the government by announcing her party was also lodging a no-confidence motion.

"The French have had enough," she told reporters in parliament. "Maybe [voters] thought with Michel Barnier things would get better, but it got even worse."

Together, the NFP and the RN have enough MPs to topple the government - the first time a French government has been dispatched in such a way since 1962. It would leave both the EU's traditional powerhouses, France and Germany, in political flux weeks before Donald Trump re-enters the White House.