France, Le Pen and the left sink the Barnier government after only three months

"Everyone is responsible for everyone. Everyone is only responsible. Everyone is only responsible for everyone'. Michel Barnier quotes the aviator writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his final speech before the fall: the Assemblée voted yesterday on the censure against its government, with the Rassemblement national converging in a not unprecedented but certainly disruptive move on the motion tabled by the left-wing cartel, the Nouveau Front Populaire, which thus received 331 votes on Wednesday, more than the 288 needed for its approval.

The prime minister called for responsibility because the reality of debt and public accounts 'will not disappear under the spell of a censure motion', he said before walking away moved from the hemicycle. The Constitution now requires him to ascend to the Elysée and resign.

Her attempt to pass the 2025 budget, necessary to prevent the French deficit from rising from 6.1% this year to 7% next year, foundered after a clash with the left, which had managed to get the Assemblée to approve many amendments - too many for the parties that supported the executive - and after Marine Le Pen's decision to bring down the government despite having obtained several concessions, having come within a step of 'clearing' her party - instead of revealing its unreliability - and having constructed for herself the role ofking maker, of faiseuse de roi. What prevailed in the leader of the radical right was the desire to give the Fifth Republic, and its president Emmanuel Macron, a run for their money: 'If he decides to stay,' Le Pen said in the Assemblée, 'he will be forced to realise that he is the president of a Republic that, because of him, is no longer entirely the Fifth.

However, Macron will not resign, as the extreme right and left hope. Returning from Saudi Arabia last night, he will have to appoint a new prime minister, and has already decided to address the citizens on Thursday evening. According to BfmTv, he could make his choice in 24 hours, thus skipping the long consultation phase. The TV network, along with Le Figaro, speaks of Sébastien Cornu, currently minister of the Armée, or François Bayrou, leader of the MoDem, the Mouvement Démocrate: two names closer to Macron than Barnier, a sign perhaps that they will try to broaden the socle commune, the common core supporting the government, to the left.

Some of the gauche parties sent unequivocal messages yesterday about the need to move closer to the centre. Over the past few days there has been much talk of a non-censure pact to support the government, an agreement re-proposed yesterday by the secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure: on this basis a left-wing government can commit itself, he said, not to resort to Article 49.3 of the Constitution (which allows a law to be passed without a vote). The ecologist senator Yannick Jadot, a former presidential candidate, made explicit reference to an executive including 'ministers from the centre bloc'. The Assemblée group leader of Macron's Renaissance party, former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, said for his part that 'there is a form of non-censure agreement that can be found with the Socialists and the Républicains. I don't know if this is possible. In any case, I think we should aim for that'. Macron does not seem convinced.