French government toppled in historic no-confidence vote

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/12/04/french-government-toppled-in-historic-no-confidence-vote_6735189_7.html

33 comments

  1. > Called a snap election

    > Fought on an anti-Le Pen platform after first round

    > Left-wing bloc came out on top

    > Ignored the left-wing bloc anyway

    > Tried to make a deal with Le Pen in the budget

    > Backfired spectacularly

    Who would’ve thought?

  4. So, extremism was a flash in the pan after all. Us moderates are gleefully rubbing our hands together, waiting to seize back power, and inflict our balanced, conciliatory approach to governance on all of you. Hahaha!

  5. Well France, you had a good run – almost five months! … and to be clear to the French, I’m mostly mocking the title’s usage of the word “toppled” and “collapse” from other articles.

  6. What a week. South Korea, now this. Le Pen must be salivating.

  7. not historic, just a tragic waste of power, time and patience…

    and around 50 billion EUR…

  11. Apparently for the first time in 62 years. This year is moving crazy.

  12. Someone explain this to me as someone who is absolutely not in the know about French politics

  13. Well yeah, that tends to happen when you name a PM from the party that ended 4th in the parliamentary elections Manu

  14. I think it’s hilarious that they colluded to block the far-right party from getting the majority, even though the far-right is only on the rise because of the poor policies from the other parties. And now after blocking them from getting the majority and having a mandate, the establishment parties can’t even form a proper government coalition.

    Poetic justice and will likely lead to even more support for seeing what the far-right can do to fix the political shitshow and extricate them from the messes the establishment parties have saddled them with. Macron thought he was being sly but didn’t kick the can as far down the road as he expected.

  15. It pisses me off that the left are always called the far left in media these days. There is nothing radical or far left about the current politicians in France. They are what years ago would have been described as moderately to the left of centre.

  16. If anyone is wondering about the background of this:

    After the parliamentary elections this summer, the left won the most seats (but not a majority), but Macron controversially decided to appoint a Prime Minister from the center-right, relying on the goodwill of the far-right to not oust the government. It was always a very tenuously held-together government. Well, the PM Michel Barnier tried to pass a budget bill that was opposed by both the left and the far-right, which cut spending and raised taxes. When it was clear that the budget bill didn’t have the support of a majority of Parliament, he tried to force it through using a controversial provision of the French Constitution. This outraged both the left and the far-right, so they called a no confidence vote on the government, which succeeded.

    However, since the French Constitution says that there must be a year between parliamentary elections, this means that there cannot be an election until next July. In the meantime, Macron must appoint a new Prime Minister. No one is sure who he is going to appoint yet.

  18. Germany following suit.

    South Korea following suit

    Georgia following suit

    Syrian Civil war intensifying…

    We’re in the endgame now.

  20. Is “toppled” the right word to use for this situation? This is a serious question. What are the ramifications of what just happened? I read something about a rule saying that elections must be a year apart and that a new Prime Minister will have to be appointed by Macron, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. More specifically, will these events cause something to happen, or not to happen? Or would it just be a matter of crippling gridlock?

  21. On the big-picture side of things, someone hiding deep in the Urals is probably laughing devilishly as the event unfolds.

  22. A big haha from here in Britain. Barnier spent the Brexit years being a dickhead and harmed Europe with his stance. Our guys were complete knobs too but I’m glad to see him with egg on his face

  24. Well there goes Macron’s short lived ménage-à-trois with the right. I’m sure he’s pleased with himself.

    Should have formed a coalition with the left wing bloc that had the most seats

  25. Does that mean we’re on to the next French Republic?

  26. I seem to recall France has executed “no confidence” votes to topple the government in a far more historically incisive manner in the past.

  28. Just a reminder that France may have avoided most of this if Macron had just appointed the New Popular Front’s nominee, Lucie Castets, instead of Barnier. Hard to say how Castets would have exactly governed, but she likely would have been better positioned than Barnier. An economist (former Paris CFO) with ties to moderate Socialists (like Anne Hidalgo) and LFI dissidents, she might have had luck uniting the NFP with the more moderate and left-friendly members of the Macron bloc for a budget plan (even if her anti-Macron pension plan and tax reform ran into opposition) rather than pissing off everybody by trying to ram through an austerity budget.

    The fault here is on Macron. He has repeatedly relied on the good will of left and center-left voters while betraying them when it comes to policy. It was the left who worked with the Macron bloc, twice, to block Le Pen from getting a parliamentary majority/plurality. Yet Macron portrayed the entirety of the left as radicals and appointed Barnier with the support of the far right. If Macron could reign in his ego and “both sides are bad” bullshit, he might actually get a functional government, or at least a fair shot at one until the next snap election could be called.

  29. Insert “Jesus I see what you’ve done for other people, and I want that for me.” Meme.

  32. They’ll be fine as long as Macron doesn’t declare martial law.

  33. Does anyone know what’s up with there being two separate no confidence motions from the right and the left, is there a reason why the one proposed by the far right was the one to pass?

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