French government pulls through no-confidence vote in parliament

PARIS

France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday pulled through the vote of no confidence against her government, as the motion failed to gather majority support.

The National Assembly rejected the motion of no confidence submitted by the New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES), which was supported by only 146 of the 577 lawmakers.

Borne denounced the largest opposition party’s attempts to pull down her government, saying it was obstructing parliamentary work.

“The French need a government that acts, but some have only one obsession: to censor it," she said.

A no-confidence motion is accepted if it receives approval of at least a tenth of the members of the Assembly. When such a motion is adopted, the prime minister must hand in the government's resignation to the president.

In France, the vote of no confidence was passed only once in 1962 against Georges Pompidou's government, which then had to resign, but it returned to power in the following legislative elections.

The opposition far-right party National Rally led by Marine le Pen – the challenger to President Emmanuel Macron – did not vote in favor of the motion. Alexandre Loube, a party member, noted the country does not need a government crisis on top of the “social, economic and security crisis.”

The leaders of the NUPES coalition defended the motion claiming a lack of trust in the Borne government.

Macron’s alliance failed to win the absolute majority in the assembly. The opposition parties also snubbed his offer for a “national unity government” leaving his alliance in the parliament with a relative majority.