The left in France has drawn the line between supporters and opponents of the government , writes in. “Mond“. Yesterday, her motion of no confidence against Michel Barnier's government received only 197 votes. That's well short of the 289 votes needed to oust him. To the 192 votes cast by the four groups of the left-wing coalition “New People's Front”, only five votes from other formations and independent deputies were added.
The first vote of no confidence against the new government, voted only a week after Barnier presented what policies the cabinet will follow and even before the draft budget for 2025 was presented, expectedly did not pass, writes in “Parisien”. There was no intrigue, as everything depended on the will of the deputies from the “National Assembly”. And the latter, through their leader Marine Le Pen, had previously indicated that they would not vote for him. At least for now, adds the capital edition.
As expected, the left took a principled stand in the vote of no confidence against the Macronist government and the right-wing "Republicans" party, which it considers illegitimate. “Mr Prime Minister, you should not have stood in front of me at all and sat on these benches with a government that should not have been appointed either”, said Olivier Faure, first secretary of the Socialist Party, part of the “New Popular Front” .
Fore reiterated the left's claim that democracy had been attacked after the election, as the prime minister is from a party that lost the election and his government is under the tutelage of the far right, against which two-thirds of the electorate voted.
When Barnier took to the rostrum of the National Assembly, the question for him was not whether the vote of no confidence tabled by the left would bring down his government. On this topic, the leader of the “National Assembly” Marine Le Pen ended the intrigue a week ago by announcing that her MPs would not support the initiative of the "New Popular Front". This was also confirmed by the counting of votes. The new prime minister faced an entirely different challenge. Like his predecessors Elizabeth Bourne and Gabriel Attal, this first innocuous vote of no confidence is above all an opportunity to begin to express himself, impose his style and apply his method, writes in “Figaro“.
On the podium, Michel Barnier defended himself calmly and, as often happens, with a touch of humor, adds the publication. “I don't need to be reminded that the government is in a minority, I know that. There is no absolute majority for anyone”, said Barnier.
According to Olivier Faure, in the budget, which will be presented on Thursday, there will be a definite cut of social policies. To which Barnier replied: “The truth we have to tell the French people is that we are spending too much, we are spending money we do not have. And that we are borrowing at interest rates that are already moving away from those of our European neighbors”.
The proposal of the left for a vote of no confidence against Michel Barnier is stillborn and is only an expression of dissatisfaction with a vicious democratic situation. This particular procedure (only those who support the proposal vote), which allows neither abstention nor voting against, has become a kind of institutional gesture of useless irritation, notes in “Liberation“.