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French President Emmanuel Macron came out fighting against opposition parties who he said “chose chaos” by bringing down his premier in a historic no confidence vote, vowing not to step aside before the end of his term.
“The mandate that you have entrusted to me democratically is a five-year mandate, and I will exercise it fully until its end,” Macron said on Thursday in his first public address following the ousting of Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government.
“My responsibility requires me to ensure the continuity of the state, the proper functioning of our institutions, the independence of our country, and the protection of all of you.”
Macron’s term runs until 2027, but he is facing rising pressure from opposition groups to step down early. He must now name a new head of government who will have to navigate the same deeply fractured parliament that brought down Barnier on Wednesday night.
The president said he would name a new prime minister “in the coming days”, as he hit out at the far-right Rassemblement National and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire alliance. “They chose chaos,” he said, adding that they were only thinking of “the presidential election: how to prepare for it, to provoke it, to precipitate it”.
France’s parliament has been gridlocked since Macron over the summer called and lost snap legislative elections that resulted in a hung parliament split between three groups — none of whom have a clear majority. Under France’s constitution, the president cannot call fresh parliamentary elections until next July at the earliest.
Barnier’s three-month premiership was the shortest in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, and the no confidence vote over a tough deficit-cutting budget only the second to have toppled an administration since 1958.
The next government will still need to pass a budget before a year-end deadline. Macron said a special finance law would be submitted to parliament by mid-December in order to ensure “the continuity of public services and the life of the country . . . until a majority can emerge in parliament” to govern.
Barnier’s administration collapsed without adopting the contentious 2025 budget, which included a €60bn package of tax rises and spending cuts aimed at reducing the deficit from more than 6 per cent this year to about 5 per cent next year.
Its fall was in large part because of the RN making good on its threats to vote it down if all the far-right party’s “red lines” on the budget were not met — despite some last-minute concessions from Barnier.
The deep divisions in parliament will continue to make budget discussions difficult, as well as complicating the choice of a new premier who can ensure political stability
Macron must now decide whether to rebuild a similar alliance with Barnier’s party, Les Républicains, or attempt to forge a new configuration. Centrist politicians in Macron’s camp have tried to convince parties from the moderate left to break with the far-left La France Insoumise, but so far those overtures have been rebuffed.
The LFI has vowed to “automatically censure” any prime minister not drawn from the left. RN leader Marine Le Pen in turn said on Thursday that her party would oppose any prime minister from the left. “There will not be a prime minister from the Nouveau Front Populaire,” she told CNews on Thursday.
Macron thanked Barnier, a veteran politician from the right and the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator, for his service. The former prime minister tendered his resignation earlier on Thursday but was asked to stay on in a caretaker role until Macron can appoint his successor.