France Crisis: Macron Says 'Won't Resign' After Barnier Ousting. What Does He Intend To Do?

Macron without hesitation stated that he would not be resigning as the president before his term ended during a televised address.

French President Emmanuel Marcon

Source : X/@EmmanuelMacron

French President Emmanuel Marcon said on Thursday, that he hopes to announce the new prime minister soon, a move that will do little to ease the deepening political crisis. This comes a day after lawmakers ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a no-confidence vote. A total of 331 lawmakers voted on Wednesday to bring down the government, reported The Guardian.

Meanwhile, Macron has ruled out resigning, saying he will stay in power until the end of his term and instead shifted blame onto left-wing and far-right factions that united to topple Barnier’s government.

The no-confidence vote and the subsequent toppling of the government left Macron facing the worst political crisis of his two terms as president.

“You have given me a democratic mandate of five years and I’ll carry it out fully until its term,” he said in a televised speech to the French people late on Thursday.

Macron condemned the “cynicism,” lack of responsibility, and “sense of chaos” displayed by opposition politicians who brought down the government in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday. The vote ended the struggling minority coalition led by right-wing Barnier after just three months in power.

Macron said he would not be held responsible for that chaos himself. He said: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility,” He would appoint a prime minister “in the coming days” and instruct them to form a government “in the general interest, representing all political forces who can take part”, or who, at least, would undertake not to bring the government down, he said.

Macron had appointed Barnier, the European Union's former Brexit negotiator, in September, two months after the political paralysis this summer.

Whom Will Macron Pick As Next PM?

Sebastien Lecornu

Sebastien Lecornu defected from the centre-right Les Republicains party and rallied behind Macron’s 2017 presidency, becoming one of the president’s staunchest allies. He joined Macron’s government alongside Bruno Le Maire, Macron’s long-serving finance minister, and former Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, both of whom had also defected from the conservative ranks.

Lecornu, 38, most recently served as the defence minister in Barnier’s outgoing government, where he oversaw increased defence spending and France’s military aid to Ukraine.

Francois Bayrou

Francois Bayrou, 73, is a centrist veteran whose Democratic Movement (MoDem) party has been a part of Macron’s ruling alliance since 2017. A longtime mayor of the southwestern town of Pau. He has made his rural roots central to his political identity and decided against running a fourth presidential race in 2017, instead rallying behind Macron.

Macron appointed Bayrou as justice minister, but he resigned just weeks later due to an investigation into his party’s alleged fraudulent employment of parliamentary assistants. He was cleared of fraud charges earlier this year.

Xavier Bertrand

The 59-year-old is a centre-right politician and the head of the northern deindustrialized region of Hauts-de-France, where Macron has promoted the development of an ecosystem for electric vehicle batteries.

He has served as a minister under the conservative presidencies of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. Also, he had participated in the Republicans’ primary contest ahead of the 2022 presidential election.

Francois Baroin

Francois Baroin is a centre-right career politician. The 59-year-old briefly served as the finance minister before which he was the budget minister during the height of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis in 2011-2012. He has been the mayor of Troyes in Champagne since 1995.