French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has accused the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, of rejecting dialogue with his partyNational Group (RN) and has announced that he will vote in favor of a motion of censure to bring down his government next Wednesday.
“I presented him with our red lines and he did not want to accept them. We cannot accept these deeply unfair budgets because they make the French pay for the incompetence of (French President Emmanuel) Macron,” said Le Pen after announcing a motion of censure against the Executive.
The leader of the extreme right, whose 140 deputies are essential for the survival of the Executive, announced that his group will present its own motion of censurebut they are also willing to vote for the one announced by the left.
With this position, the hours of Barnier’s Executive, appointed on September 5, are numbered, but Le Pen downplayed the seriousness of the matter: “Last year’s budgets will be applied, there will be a new prime minister and a new budget will be adopted.”
“The French have no reason to be afraid. The only thing they have to fear is the country’s high deficit and the rise in unemployment due to the policies of the last seven years,” he said.
Le Pen accused Barnier of want to follow Macron’s policies and minimized the concessions that the prime minister has made to them in recent days in the budget negotiation. In addition, he criticized that he did not agree to the last of them, that of giving up delaying the increase in pensions in 2025 for half a year to absorb inflation in 2024.
He assured that His obligation is to “defend the French” against the measures of the Executive and considered that Barnier did not take into account his proposals on “cuts and new income.” Regarding the decision not to stop subsidizing certain medicines, adopted this morning by Barnier, Le Pen pointed out that it barely amounts to 500 million euros.
Barnier has only 211 deputies in an Assembly of 577, which makes his dismissal in the motion of censure almost certain, which in France are not constructive, but simply overthrow the Government. It will be Macron, who is on a state visit to Saudi Arabia until Wednesday, who will have to name a new Executive.
