France is heading towards “chaos” and a financial crisis equivalent to the collapse of Greece in 2008, a minister has warned.
Bruno Retailleau issued the dire warning on Tuesday as motions of no confidence against Prime Minister Michel Barnier were presented to the National Assembly.
The right-wing populist National Rally party (RN) has pledged to support far-left MPs from the New Popular Front coalition, meaning Barnier has little chance of survival after just three months in office.
“We are at a critical moment for France,” Mr Retailleau told TF1. “We risk chaos, we risk a financial crisis” similar to the “public debt crisis in Greece in 2008.”
The crisis in Greece that followed the 2008 global financial collapse came after the country borrowed more money than it could earn through taxes, resulting in a growing spending deficit.
Greece had to be bailed out by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which sent three packages totaling £259 billion in 2010. The country subsequently implemented drastic austerity measures.
Its economy has begun to recover and has even begun to grow slowly, despite the fact that it is 25 percent smaller than when the crisis began and that it will take years for Greece to pay off its debt, which is equivalent to 180 percent of its GDP. , according to the report. bbc.
This comes as Barnier pushed through a controversial new social security budget by using a presidential decree without going through parliament, a move that triggered two votes of no confidence that will be discussed this week and are likely to bring down his government.
Bruno Retailleau issued this dire warning on Tuesday, when motions of no confidence against Prime Minister Michel Barnier (pictured) were presented to the National Assembly.
“We are at a critical moment for France,” Bruno Retailleau (pictured) told TF1. ‘We risk chaos, we risk a financial crisis’ similar to the ‘public debt crisis in Greece in 2008’
This comes as Barnier pushed through a controversial new social security budget by using a presidential decree without going through parliament, a move that triggered two no-confidence votes that will be discussed this week and are likely to bring down his government.
“It is not the rich who are the first to be affected, but the most modest, the most fragile,” said Mr. Retailleau about the new social security budget.
‘And during this time we have a part of the political class playing Russian roulette. Let’s wake up and prevent what seems inevitable: chaos.’
Retailleau was particularly critical of Marine Le Pen of the RN, calling her “totally irresponsible, irresponsible because she is going to mix her votes and those of her deputies with those of the extreme left.”
Pushing the measure through a presidential decree is perfectly legal under article 49.3 of the French Constitution, but the measure has been seen as an attack on democracy.
President Emmanuel Macron frequently uses such decrees to put unpopular legislation on the statute book, leaving his lieutenants to take the heat.
Barnier’s budget bill was designed to curb France’s growing public deficit through £50 billion (€60 billion) in tax rises and spending cuts, but was criticized by Le Pen and others as ” deeply unfair” for the French people.
Explaining why he pushed through the policies without a parliamentary vote, Barnier told the National Assembly in a dramatic speech on Monday afternoon: “The situation is serious, the immediate daily lives of the French people are at stake.”
“We will vote on a motion of no confidence,” said the far-right National Rally party in
Marine Le Pen, French far-right leader and member of parliament, president of the French far-right National Rally.
“The French have had enough,” he told reporters. “Maybe they thought that with Michel Barnier things would get better, but they were even worse.”
Ms Le Pen, the RN’s nominated presidential candidate, previously said Barnier’s €40bn (£33bn) in spending cuts and €20bn (£16bn) in tax rises would be a disaster.
In turn, Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, described the measures as essential for France to control its deficit, which is expected to reach 6.1 percent this year.
In a dramatic speech to the National Assembly on Monday afternoon, Barnier said he had “reached the end of the dialogue” with opposition parties and that “at this moment of truth,” “it is time to act to implement the article 49.3” of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.
Two motions of censure will be debated in the National Assembly in Paris tomorrow, Wednesday, starting at 4 p.m., and the vote will take place around 7 p.m.
This means that Michel Barnier could be out of power on Thursday, three months since President Macron appointed him Prime Minister.
No French government has been ousted by such a vote since 1962 and it would make Barnier, 73, the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of the Fifth Republic.
Barnier, the former EU Brexit negotiator, is Macron’s fifth prime minister in seven years.
Rassemblement national parliamentary group president Marine Le Pen gestures during the voting session on the Social Security 2025 bill at the National Assembly
RN spokesman Jean-Philippe Tanguy said Tuesday that his party’s decision to try to overthrow Barnier’s government was designed “to protect the French.”
And he added: “The budget was dangerous and toxic for France and did not respect the red lines that had been set.”
Tanguy said his party – the largest in the National Assembly – did not support the extreme left, but rather “defended the national interest.”
RN’s position is complicated by a court case against Le Pen and other senior party figures over the alleged embezzlement of millions of pounds in EU cash.
If the sentence, scheduled for March, goes against the RN, Le Pen faces prison and could be banned from running for political office in the next five years, which would rule her out of the 2027 presidential elections.
The New Popular Front alliance won the most seats in the National Assembly during a snap election called by President Macron in June, but has not been allowed to play any role in the government since.