French Prime Minister Michel Barnier is set to quit on Thursday after far-right and left-wing legislators voted to destabilize his administration, throwing France into its second major political crisis in six months.
Barnier, a senior politician who was formerly the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, will be the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history. No French administration has lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou’s in 1962.
The extreme left and far right chastised Barnier for forcing an unpopular budget through an unruly, hung parliament without a vote. The proposed budget seeks 60 billion euros ($63.07 billion) in cuts in an effort to reduce a massive deficit.
Barnier’s retirement will bring an end to weeks of debate over the budget, which Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally claimed was too tough on workers.
It also undermines President Emmanuel Macron’s standing, which was exacerbated by his disastrous choice to hold a snap election before of the 2018 Paris Olympics.
Macron is facing rising calls to quit, but he has a mandate until 2027 and cannot be removed. Nonetheless, the long-running political scandal has left him a weakened role.
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Source: India Today
