France is heading for ‘chaos’ and a financial crisis equal to Greece‘s 2008 collapse, a minister has warned.
Bruno Retailleau issued the dire warning on Tuesday as no-confidence motions in Prime Minister Michel Barnier were presented to the National Assembly.
The right-wing populist National Rally (RN) has pledged to support far-left MPs from the New Popular Front coalition, meaning Mr Barnier has little chance of survival after just three months in office.
‘We are in 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 following the worldwide 2008 financial crash came after the country borrowed more money than it was able to make via taxes, resulting in a spiralling spending deficit.
Greece had to be bailed out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which sent three packages totalling £259billion in 2010. The country implemented drastic austerity measures afterwards.
Its economy has started to recover and even slowly started growing, even though it is 25 per cent smaller than when the crisis began and it will take years for Greece to pay back its debt equaling 180 per cent of its GDP, according to the BBC.
This comes as Mr Barnier pushed through a controversial new social security budget by using a presidential decree while bypassing parliament – a move which triggered two no-confidence votes to be discussed this week that will likely topple his government.
Bruno Retailleau issued the dire warning on Tuesday, as no-confidence motions in prime minister Michel Barnier (pictured) were presented to the National Assembly
‘We are in 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 Mr Barnier pushed through a controversial new social security budget by using a presidential decree while bypassing parliament – a move which triggered two no-confidence votes to be discussed this week that will likely topple his government
‘It is not those who are rich who are the first to be impacted, it is the most modest, the most fragile,’ Mr Retailleau said 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.’
Mr Retailleau was particularly critical of Marine Le Pen, of the RN, saying she was ‘totally irresponsible – irresponsible because she is going to mix her votes and those of her deputies with those of the far-Left.’
Pushing the measure through via presidential decree is perfectly legal under Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, but the move has been viewed as an attack on democracy.
President Emmanuel Macron frequently uses such decrees to get unpopular legislation on to the statute book, leaving his lieutenants to take the criticism.
Mr Barnier’s budget bill was designed to rein in France’s spiraling public deficit through £50billion (€60billion) in tax hikes and spending cuts, but was slammed by Ms Le Pen and others as being ‘deeply unfair’ to the French people.
Explaining why he pushed through the policies without a parliamentary vote, Mr Barnier told the National Assembly in a dramatic speech Monday afternoon: ‘The situation is serious, the immediate daily lives of the French are at stake.’
‘We will vote no confidence,’ the hard-right National Rally party said on X. ‘We are tabling a motion of censure and we will vote for the censure of the government,’ confirmed Marine Le Pen, the party’s leader in parliament.
French hard-right leader and member of parliament Marine Le Pen, President of the French far-right National Rally
‘The French have had enough,’ she told reporters. ‘Maybe they thought with Michel Barnier things would get better, but they were even worse.’
Ms Le Pen, the RN’s designated presidential candidate, previously said that Mr Barnier’s €40 billion (£33billion) in spending cuts and €20billion (£16bn) in tax hikes would be a disaster.
In turn, Mr Barnier, the former EU Brexit negotiator, described the measures as essential if France is to control its deficit, which is projected to hit 6.1 per cent this year.
In a dramatic speech to the National Assembly Monday afternoon, Mr Barnier said he had ‘reached the end of dialogue’ with opposition parties, and that ‘at this moment of truth’, ‘it is time to act to implement Article 49.3’ of the Fifth Republic Constitution.
Two motions of no-confidence will be debated in the National Assembly in Paris from 4pm tomorrow, Wednesday, with a vote at around 7pm.
This means that Michel Barnier could be out of power by Thursday – the three month anniversary of President Macron appointing him Prime Minister.
No French government has been forced out by such a vote since 1962 and it would make Mr Barnier, 73, the shortest-serving prime minister in the history of the Fifth Republic.
Mr Barnier, the former EU Brexit negotiator, is Mr Macron’s fifth prime minister in seven years.
President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen gestures during the voting session on the draft of the Social Security bill 2025 at the National Assembly
RN spokesman Jean-Philippe Tanguy on Tuesday said his party’s decision to try and bring down the Barnier government was designed ‘to protect the French’.
He added: ‘The budget was dangerous and toxic for France and did not respect the red lines that had been set.’
Mr Tanguy said his party – the largest in the National Assembly – was not supporting the far-Left, but ‘defending the national interest’.
The RN’s position is complicated by a court case against Ms Le Pen and other senior party figures over the alleged embezzlement of millions of pounds worth of cash from the EU.
If the judgment, due in March, goes against the RN, Le Pen is facing prison, and could be barred from standing for political office in the next five years, ruling her out of the 2027 presidential election.
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 part in government since.