French government toppled in no-confidence vote

French opposition lawmakers brought the government down on Wednesday, throwing the European Union’s second-biggest economic power deeper into a political crisis that threatens its capacity to legislate and rein in a massive budget deficit.

Far-right and left-wing lawmakers joined forces to back a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his government, with a majority 331 votes in support of the motion.

Barnier was expected to tender his resignation and that of his government to President Emmanuel Macron shortly.

No French government had lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou’s in 1962. This time, Macron had ushered in the crisis by calling a snap election in June that delivered a polarized parliament.

With its president diminished, France now risks ending the year without a stable government or a 2025 budget, although the constitution allows special measures that would avert a US-style government shutdown.

France’s political turmoil will further weaken a European Union already reeling from the implosion of Germany’s coalition government, and weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The left and far right punished Barnier for opting to use special constitutional powers to ram part of an unpopular budget, which sought 60 billion euros in savings in an effort to shrink the deficit, through parliament without a final vote.

Far-right chief Marine Le Pen had said collapsing the government was “the only way the constitution gives us to protect the French from a dangerous, unfair and punitive budget.”