Polling released on Thursday, December 5, reveals that as many as 59 percent of the French public want President Emmanuel Macron to resign from office. On Wednesday, populist Marine Le Pen and her National Rally (RN) joined far-left parties to support a vote of no confidence against Macron’s government, led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
Despite fears that the collapse of the minority government could cause a political crisis, polling firm ODOXA suggests that 51 percent of the French public supported bringing down the government.
President Macron is set to address the French nation on Thursday evening and may discuss the possibility of attempting to appoint a new Prime Minister. According to the ODOXA polling, 59 percent of the French want him to appoint someone not affiliated with any political party, such as a technocrat.
Of the 14 established political names proposed by the pollsters to the French public as a new prime minister, none held a majority of support.
ROAD TO RUIN.
The current crisis has its roots in Macron’s call for a snap election following his party’s defeat in the European Union Parliament elections, in which Le Pen’s National Rally placed first.
The July elections saw the New Popular Front (NFP), a coalition of several far-left parties, place first, followed by Macron’s bloc, and the populist RN in third place despite placing first in the popular vote. The RN was the single largest party in the National Assembly, however.
After months of delay in nominating a prime minister, ostensibly due to the Paris Summer Olympics, Barnier was appointed in late September to head a minority government.
Unable to please either the left or the right-populist RN, who demanded budget policies like attaching state pensions to inflation rates, Barnier attempted to use controversial provisions in the French constitution to push through the budget without a vote.
This strategy failed when the right and left voted to collapse the government on Wednesday.