Quotes
The moment is serious and difficult, but the challenge is not impossible,
Barnier said in an interview with journalists from French broadcasters TF1 and France 2.
If the no confidence motion passes, everything will be more difficult and more serious,
Barnier saidThe country is at a turning point,
Finance Minister Antoine Armand said
I’m very worried and very upset with the forces on the left and the forces on the far right,
Bertrand Chenu, a 65-year-old retiree, told AFP in Paris
It’s probably for the best, an austerity budget would be a disaster. France will have to decide its future – which way it wants to go. It’s time to stop placating the putrid poison of Le Pen’s fascistic RN. It’ll be like lancing a boil.”
Stuart Bottomley, an English upholsterer living near Bordeaux told Al Jazeera
The feeling is also mixed. Some people are angry about French politics, while others are satisfied,
the 52-year-old who works at a Telecommunications company, told Al JazeeraWe are going back to playing the same game again as in summer [of 2024], where Macron finds himself with a very fractured parliament where you have left bloc, a centrist bloc and a far-right bloc,
she told Al JazeeraWe also are not used to compromise like other European countries,
she said, commenting on the political chaosAt the moment, what France needs is leadership to cure,
she addedMoreover, with the ongoing lawsuit against Le Pen, she sees herself cornered by the judiciary system in France which could also make it hard for her to run for the next presidential election. So her party’s decision against Barnier is a motion to help her win people‘s votes, but a very risky one, since her party could be seen as the one which has opened the gates to chaos [and thus lose the more moderate part of her electorate],
he addedEver since Barnier took the prime minister’s office, it was clear that he was dependent on support from forces in the French political system especially, the radical right led by Le Pen,
Jacob Ross, an expert on French politics and Franco-German relations at the German Council of foreign relations, told Al Jazeera
With [Article] 49.3, this is one blow too many from an illegitimate government. We are tabling a motion of censure. Barnier’s fall is a done deal. Macron will be next.”
Speaking to France’s BFM TV on Monday, Mathilde Panot, of the left-wing France Unbowed (La France Insoumise, LFI) parliamentary group saidThe domestic instability will require a lot of political bandwidth from Macron. The country is in this weird in-between period where on one hand, the government is extremely unstable and on the other hand it is paralysed because you cannot do anything. This requires a lot of presidential attention, making it challenging for Macron to focus on European issues,
she saidI think currently, there is a European leadership void to face Trump’s America and also come up with solutions to stop the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza on the international stage. But smaller EU member states like Poland, for instance, are really trying to fill that leadership void,
he said
He’s clearly a total lame duck and his calling of the election when he did must rank as one of the most stupid decisions that any leader has made in the last five years
Mr Kwarteng said
He was perfectly happy to use the Northern Ireland situation to try and thwart Brexit”.
She addedEveryone must shoulder their responsibilities,
Le Pen saidWe are at a moment of truth ... The French will not forgive us for putting the interests of individuals before the future of the country,
he said as he put his government's fate in the hands of the divided parliament which was the result of an inconclusive snap election Macron called in June
The French have had enough,
National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen told reporters in parliament, sayingIs she ready to sacrifice all the wins she got?"
the source told Reuters