French MPs will vote tonight on two motions de censure – votes of no confidence – that have been filed against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his government.
The motions were brought forward by the left-wing parties in the Nouveau Front Populaire coalition – and the far-right Rassemblement National.
Failing an unlikely turnaround, the motion from the left will be supported by the far-right and lead to the government being toppled, as a majority of MPs will vote against the government. The motion from the RN is not likely to pass as is expected to lack support from the left.
The votes will take place around 20:00, after discussions in the Assemblée nationale concerning the motions.
Either of the motions needs the votes of 289 MPs or more to pass, at which point the government is immediately toppled and must resign.
However, the motion from the left openly criticises the RN, leading commenters and also French President Emmanuel Macron to question whether RN MPs will vote in favour of it.
Read more: Will France’s government be toppled tonight and what then?
What does the left’s motion say?
The left’s motion was deposited almost immediately after Michel Barnier announced the use of the controversial article 49.3 in the Assemblée nationale on Monday (December 2).
Read more: What next as French government faces motion of no confidence?
It was signed by 185 MPs.
We have translated the left’s motion into English below:
“With no majority in the Assemblée nationale, the Prime Minister has chosen to use the provisions of Article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution to impose the Social Security Financing Bill for 2025, and thus force through an austerity budget that will severely weaken our social protection system. There can be no doubt that if this minority government is not censured now, it will continue to impose its austere policy by again using Article 49.3 on the end-of-year finance bill for 2024 and the finance bill for 2025.
The reduction of over €62 billion a year in state revenues since Emmanuel Macron's election, to the benefit of very large corporations and the wealthiest taxpayers, has fuelled a record budget deficit. Michel Barnier continues the dogmatism of Emmanuel Macron's supporters, who reject any social justice measures. Michel Barnier has opted for austerity, which poses a major risk of recession, and a major risk on the employment front. Indeed, redundancy plans are multiplying, and the OFCE predicts almost 150,000 job losses by 2025.
Those who sent the country to disaster are now asking the French to foot the bill: taxing pensioners through the partial and deferred de-indexation of retirement pensions, taxing patients through the increase in out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare, taxing apprentices, taxing the healthcare system through €600 million in additional budget cuts... The reform of the scale of exemptions from social security contributions has been scuppered by the "common ground" members of parliament, even though they were supposed to support the Barnier government.
If implemented, this social security budget would exacerbate the difficulties that the French experience on a daily basis: closure of emergency services, shortages of essential medicines, medical desertification, an increase in the renunciation of care for financial reasons, nursing homes and public hospitals at the end of their tether, excesses of the commercialization of the day-care sector... The government and the MPs who support it have remained obtuse, stubbornly defending a policy that has already been rejected in the ballot boxes.
The adoption of amendments by the Nouveau Front Populaire groups during the examination of the text in the Assemblée nationale demonstrated that it was possible to find the resources to meet social and health needs. Raising nearly €17 billion in additional revenue from the wealthiest taxpayers was adopted, equivalent to the deficit in compulsory social security schemes forecast by the government for 2025. At no point did the government take into account the Assembly's votes and open the way for discussion. It brushed aside the amendments tabled by the groups of Nouveau Front Populaire.
While a large majority of our fellow citizens chose to block the far-right in the legislative elections, the prime minister gave in to their vilest obsessions, with a new immigration law that would continue the moral and political bankruptcy of last year and an attack on Aide Medicale d’Etat which brings humanity and dignity to those who set foot on our soil, and is an essential public health measure for all.
The use of Article 49, paragraph 3 of the Constitution is the result of Emmanuel Macron's choice to appoint a prime minister who has very little support in the Chamber and in the country, and who seeks to maintain himself by now seeking a clear agreement with the Rassemblement National.
It is with gravity and responsibility that the left presents this motion of censure today, for it has never sided with instability or chaos. But the absence of dialogue, the contempt for the proposals put forward and for the work of parliament make censure necessary.
For these reasons, in accordance with the provisions of article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution and articles 153 and following the rules of procedure of the National Assembly, we, the MPs, table the present motion of censure.”
You can read the text in its original French on the official Assemblée nationale website here.
Far-right also file motion
In turn, the far-right filed their own motion shortly after the left on Monday evening.
It was signed by 140 MPs. Below we have translated this document into English.
It reads:
“[As a result of] the Prime Minister having chosen to use Article 49, paragraph 3 of the Constitution to pass the Social Security Financing Bill for 2025 in the version resulting from the Joint Committee, we, the deputies of the Groupe Rassemblement National [RN] and the deputies of the Groupe Union des Droites pour la République [UDR], have decided to use the provisions of Article 49, paragraph 3 of the Constitution and Article 153 (and those following) of the Rules of Procedure of the Assemblée nationale to censure the government.
In its budget presentation, the government emphasised three points: controlled spending, a just effort, a sovereign France; none of these three points are reflected in the two budget texts.
In the absence of the structural savings expected by the French on immigration and France's contribution to the European Union, the budget texts will accentuate deficits, and a number of choices, such as raising labour costs, risk having recessionary effects, as the OFCE points out. On the other hand, the effort required in the light of our public finances does not seem just at all, and the taxes against rents or speculation are so convoluted that they do not yield any additional resources. Finally, nothing in the texts strengthens France's sovereignty, particularly in the crucial area of energy.
The government has never listened to the proposals put forward by the RN and UDR groups in a detailed, costed counter-budget reflecting five clear political choices:
- Giving purchasing power back to the French people
- Defending entrepreneurs and the value of work
- Fighting rents, speculation and fraud
- Downsizing the state, refocusing it on its core missions, streamlining the territorial “mille-feuille” [multi-layers] and undertaking a massive reduction in bureaucracy
- Stop spending that runs counter to the will of the people.
Nor did it ever acknowledge that these proposals were first and foremost those supported by the votes of 11 million French people and, given the country's particular political situation, he could not ignore the expectations of our compatriots, who, in June, clearly expressed their desire not only to break with the seven years of Macronism, but also to break with the European policies that have created the conditions for a crisis in production and an economic stalling of the continent.
The budget for which the government has taken responsibility includes two further measures (de-indexation of pensions and higher labour costs, which will have a major impact on very small, small, and medium businesses) which have turned out to be red lines, in line with the warnings issued by Marine Le Pen on October 2 in response to the Prime Minister's general policy speech.
By failing to respond to the crisis in purchasing power that has been affecting our compatriots for months, by not proposing any structural savings, in particular through an overhaul of our migration policy, and by not offering any measures of fiscal justice, in particular the taxation of speculation, the budget in no way meets the challenges facing our country.
What's more, the government, which has shown no sign of taking any political account of the results of the 2024 European and legislative elections, clearly no longer has the confidence of a very large section of the Assemblée nationale.
This is why we are tabling this motion to prevent this budget from being adopted, and to censure the government.”
The text can be found in French here.
