Michel Barnier: French PM to resign after government collapse

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP), which won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, had previously criticised Macron’s decision to appoint centrist Barnier as prime minister over its own candidate.

Alongside the far-right National Rally (RN), it deemed Barnier’s budget – which included €60bn (£49bn) in deficit reduction – unacceptable.

Marine Le Pen, the RN leader, said the budget was “toxic for the French”.

Ahead of the vote, Barnier told the National Assembly that voting him out of office would not solve the country’s financial problems.

“We have reached a moment of truth, of responsibility,” he said, adding that “we need to look at the realities of our debt”.

“I did not present almost exclusively difficult measures because I wanted to.”

In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday, Le Pen said there was “no other solution” than to remove Barnier.

Asked about the French president’s prospects, she replied: “I am not asking for the resignation of Emmanuel Macron.”

Many of her allies, however, are increasingly openly hoping they can force him to resign. RN adviser Philippe Olivier told Le Monde the president was “a fallen republican monarch, advancing with his shirt open and a rope around his neck up to the next dissolution [of parliament]”.

No new parliamentary elections can be held until July, so the current deadlock in the Assembly – where no group can hope to have a working majority – is set to continue.