French President Emmanuel Macron began looking for another prime minister yesterday after the far right joined forces with the left to push through a no-confidence motion against his government over a budget dispute.
The French president needs to find a prime minister who can pass next year’s budget through a deeply divided parliament, but any new leader would face the same financial squeeze that brought down French Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s administration.
The French president was due to address the nation after press time last night.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The budget bill that sank Barnier’s government contained 60 billion euros (US$63.3 billion) in tax increases and spending cuts that aimed for a reduction in the deficit to 5 percent of economic output next year, from an estimated 6.1 percent this year.
“This budget was toxic for the French,” National Rally leader Marine le Pen said in an interview on French television after she voted to bring down the administration.
Instead, the country needs “a budget that’s acceptable to all,” she said.
The chaos in the EU’s second-biggest economy has prompted bond investors to punish France’s sovereign debt relative to its peers and Barnier had warned of a “storm” in financial markets if he was ousted.
Bonds and the euro were unrattled by the vote, with the 10-year yield ticking lower and the common currency trading little changed. The extra yield investors demand to hold French debt rather than safer German notes declined to 81 basis points.
Barnier, a seasoned conservative and previously the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, was only appointed in September, making his tenure the shortest for any prime minister since France’s Fifth Republic was founded in 1958. He is also the first French prime minister to lose a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years.
Macron has the authority to appoint a new prime minister, but he had a lengthy struggle before he managed to win limited support for Barnier from a fragmented parliament.
Le Pen said that she is willing to work with another government, so long as they work with her party to draw up the budget.
Macron has said he would not step down until his term ends in 2027 and he cannot be forced out of his job.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Ministry of National Defense said today. Speaking in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of 1996 Taiwanese presidential elections. China's military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises. "The current scale is
RSS