“I will carry out my mandate until the end”

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has assured that he will not resign after the motion of no confidence against the Government of Michel Barnier. “I will carry out my mandate until the end,” he said. “As of today a new era must begin and in the coming days I will appoint a new prime minister.” The presidential term ends in 2027 and Macron cannot run again.

“The extreme right and the extreme left have united in an anti-republican front,” stated the president in his first speech after the motion, approved in the National Assembly after Barnier’s attempt to pass the Social Security budget by decree without submit it to a parliamentary vote.

Macron has not yet announced the name of the next prime minister and the left-wing New Popular Front coalition, the main parliamentary bloc, is trying to overcome its differences and pressure him to choose a progressive head of government.

The president has assured that he will appoint a prime minister to form a “government of general interest” that represents “all the political forces of a government arc that can participate in it or that, at least, undertake not to censor it.”

“I don’t think it even occurs to him. [nombrar un primer ministro de izquierda] because he is not going to want a second motion of censure from a second Government. And furthermore, the calls heard in favor of his resignation are going to begin to rise,” Marine Le Pen, leader of the extreme right, warned in an interview on the CNews channel.

Presented by the New Popular Front (NFP) and supported by Le Pen’s party, it is the first motion of censure approved since 1962. A motion only requires a simple majority in the National Assembly to pass and parliamentary fragmentation makes it very difficult to reach a solid majority.

Composed of 577 seats, the absolute majority is 289 deputies. The NFP has 180; the macronist Ensemble alliance, 159; the extreme right, 142; and the traditional right of Los Republicanos – of which Barnier is a part –, 39.