One motion of no confidence against the French government came from the left, the other from the right-wing populist opposition – both failed on Friday. The motion from the left-wing party La France insoumise (LFI) and the Greens received 269 votes, narrowly missing the majority of 288 votes needed to overthrow the government. Only 19 votes were missing, as the right-wing national Rassemblement National (RN) and the allies of the right-wing nationalist group Eric Ciotti also voted unanimously for this motion.
The left-wing MPs, on the other hand, did not want to vote for the right-wing populists’ motion, for which only 142 votes were counted. Because this was expected, the vast majority of MPs from the Parti Socialiste (PS) and the conservative Les Républicains (LR) group did not take part in both votes. However, some PS and LR members apparently did not adhere to the party slogan.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu can therefore continue to govern with his cabinet of ministers for the time being, although he does not actually have a majority of representatives in the French “lower house”. His victory in Friday’s test of strength shows that it can be enough to convince part of the opposition – in this case in the PS and LR camps – to stay silent. But the Prime Minister had to thank both factions for this in the state budget debate make significant political concessions.
In this situation, which is very uncomfortable for him, Lecornu plays the survivalist who has to worry from debate to debate and vote to vote. On Friday he gained some time and perhaps even a little political room for maneuver, but above all saved his proposal for the state budget.
Controversial emergency solution: Constitutional Article 49.3
Since he could not risk a vote in the National Assembly on the share of state revenue for 2026, he resorted to the emergency solution of constitutional article 49.3. This allows the state leadership to declare a bill adopted without a vote – unless the government is disavowed when voting on a motion of no confidence. Lecornu had promised last year that he would not resort to this measure, which was frowned upon as “undemocratic”.
The Prime Minister cannot breathe a sigh of relief for long in his wobbly chair. He has already announced that he will also have to use 49.3 to pass the second part of the state bill, concerning expenditure. The LFI parliamentary group wants to respond immediately with another motion of no confidence. This is in the hope that sooner or later a majority will emerge against the government. Then President Emmanuel Macron would have to find a new prime minister and probably order new elections.
Both the conservative and the socialist MPs would currently have to expect heavy losses of seats in early elections. The extreme right, possibly also the LFI, would have something to gain from this. This also explains their eagerness to overthrow the government as quickly as possible, and if necessary with unholy combined forces. They say that according to a survey for Le Figaro 75 percent of French people think Lecornu’s national budget is bad.
The Socialists are playing the “responsible party” card. They assure us that they are not interested in electoral politics, but rather in avoiding a political crisis. PS boss Olivier Faure justified the position by saying that it was better for France to have a state budget that was certainly not very satisfactory, but modified thanks to compromises, than none at all.
This conciliatory attitude is given to him by the previous leftists Allied partners of the “New Popular Front”LFI, Greens and Communists, were very resented. De facto, the PS leadership is no longer in the opposition, but rather a partner of the government, the LFI protests. Lecornu can celebrate the fact that he managed to divide the left with a few concessions in the budget debate as a “collateral” victory.