MARSEILLE, France (CN) — On Thursday evening, speaking from the Élysée Palace in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron made a few things clear.
First, the collapse of France’s government was not his fault.
“[French Prime Minister] Michel Barnier was censored because the far right and the far left united in an anti-republican front,” Macron said, “I will never take responsibility for the irresponsibility of others.”
Critics have been calling for Macron to resign since he dissolved the government in June, arguing that the decision sparked months of unprecedented political chaos and instability. When the cabinet fell on Wednesday, these voices became louder. But Macron assured France that resignation remains off the table.
“The mandate that you democratically entrusted to me is a five-year mandate and I will exercise it fully until its end,” he said. “My responsibility requires ensuring the continuity of the state, the proper functioning of our institutions, the independence of our country and the protection of all of you.”
To drive the point home, Macron repeatedly referenced the 30 months that remain in his term, citing schools, health, security and progress as some of the key priorities for the remainder of his mandate. He also said that he would propose a new law in mid-December that will “apply the choices of 2024 for 2025.”
Macron said that he would nominate a new prime minister in the coming days.
On Wednesday night, France’s freshly formed government collapsed under a no-confidence vote sparked by a budget fight. The cabinet hasn’t been taken down this way in over 60 years. The left-wing New Popular Front put forward a motion of censure that the extreme-right National Rally eventually joined, with its figurehead Marine Le Pen spearheading the charge.
“I think that deep down, Marine Le Pen and the leaders of the National Rally wanted to express that they were important political actors, that they were the ones who had a bit of the French political sphere in the palm of their hands,” Luc Rouban, a senior research fellow at Sciences Po Paris, told Courthouse News. “I think they realized that deep down, they were not fully recognized as partners by the Barnier government — they were considered a bit as a necessary evil, as people who aren’t very respectable and people who are kept a little at a distance.”
This is the second time that France has been without a government in six months. Michel Barnier broke the record for France’s shortest-lived prime minister with roughly three months in the role. He announced his resignation Thursday; Macron “took note,” the Elysee presidential palace said in a statement. Barnier and other ministers will be “in charge of current affairs until the appointment of a new government,” the office said.
Macron hoped that Barnier could act as a wise mediator, drawing from experience as the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator; but the prime minister turned out to be too right for the left, and too left for the extreme right.
“For [Macron], the Barnier government was more of a management government that was there to deal with deficit problems, budget problems,” Rouban said. “He didn’t really see why this solution would ultimately be rejected by all of the parliamentarians — I think he was very unpleasantly surprised because he’s now obliged to come back as the great unifier and great actor of French politics.”
Macron opened his speech Thursday by thanking Barnier “for his dedication and his pugnacity,” and said “he rose to the occasion when so many others did not.”
In the immediate aftermath of the government collapse, roughly 130,000-200,000 people took to the streets to protest the austerity measures proposed in Barnier’s 2025 budget plan, in which he called for deep cuts and tax increases. France’s biggest trade unions led the protests, demanding the government repeal its plan to restrict compensation for workers on sick leave. Barnier tried to ram through the budget using a rare move to avoid a vote, leaving lawmakers to cry foul.
More broadly, the strikes crystallized anger over proposed reductions of public services. Budget cuts largely targeted these sectors, which are effectively sacred in the French imagination. At least 54% of middle and high school teachers went on strike, shutting down schools across France. Cafeteria workers joined the movement en masse.
Hospital workers, garbage collectors, police officers and city administrative workers were among other groups that demonstrated on Thursday.
In Marseille, police vans blocked off the main arteries of the city after the protest cortege took off around 10:30 a.m. The tram, which usually zooms through the city center near the old port, was replaced by protesters waving union flags and political slogans scribbled on cardboard. People had small flyers with “Macron destitution” — meaning “Macron impeachment” — pinned to their chests.
“I’m here because of the budget that was proposed, and the government which is detrimental because of social services and the grave austerity politics,” Noelle, a middle-aged woman who asked to withhold her last name, told Courthouse News. “There will be 4,000 fewer teachers, less people, and they won’t be able to work in quality conditions — it’s sick.”
Noelle carried a sign from the CGT, France’s biggest trade union. She repeated that she joined the demonstration to defend public services before launching into a critique on Macron.
“I’m content for sure [about the collapse of the government], but I think Macron is capable of anything,” she said. “I think he should leave but he’s too attached to power.”