Is the French government about to collapse?
President Macron’s office took the unusual step of issuing a formal denial that he had told his confidents “the government is going to fall.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has been forced to issue a denial that he thinks his government is about to collapse after the French newspaper, Le Parisien, quoted the president as saying it will happen “sooner than we think.”
The French government has to get its budget passed, but does not have a majority in parliament.
The government, under the premiership of former EU Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is proposing to save €60 billion with a cocktail of hefty cuts and tax rises.
The plan has caused a wave of strikes in recent weeks. Rail workers, farmers and even jockeys have brought roads, railway lines and racecourses to a standstill.
The minority government is made up of members of Macron’s own party and the conservative Republican party, even though they only came in third and fourth place in last summer’s election.
So far, the government has survived because Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party has lent their votes.
But she again threatened to pull the plug after a meeting with Barnier on Monday.
The government is also under pressure from the EU. France has been running a deficit far in excess of the EU’s 3 percent limit.
That rule is designed to keep the Eurozone stable.
The European Commission published on Tuesday estimates that Michel Barnier’s cuts would bring the deficit back below 3 percent by 2029.
The EU’s analysis might confirm that Barnier has the numbers right, but it is unlikely to garner him the support he needs in parliament.
The government does have the option of using an emergency procedure to get the budget passed without winning a vote of the Assemblee Nationale. But National Rally has indicated that they would immediately call a vote of no-confidence if he does that.
The left-green block that won the election, New Popular Front, has been frozen out by Macron and is poised to take its revenge by forcing the government’s collapse.
French newspaper, Le Parisien, today claimed that Macron told his confidants, “the government is going to fall. She [Marine Le Pen] is going to censor it at some point and sooner than we think.”
Macron’s office on Tuesday afternoon took the unusual step of issuing a formal denial.
“The President of the Republic is not a commentator on current affairs. The government is at work and the country needs stability”, his office wrote in a statement published on X/Twitter and reposted by some of his government’s ministers.
His alleged comments reflect what many political commentators believe, that the government’s days are numbered.
To use one of Michel Barnier’s favourite Brexit phrases, ‘the clock is ticking’.