French government overcomes no-confidence votes unscathed but shaken (2025)

  • French Politics
  • Borne government

The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) voted with the left on a motion of no confidence, but none of the three opposition motions were successful for lack of a majority due to the lack of an absolute majority.

ByJérémie Lamothe and Mariama Darame

Published on October 25, 2022, at 10:16 am (Paris), updated on October 25, 2022, at 10:21 am

4 min read

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French government overcomes no-confidence votes unscathed but shaken (1)

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's government has not fallen. Neither of the two motions of no confidence tabled by the left-wing Nouvelle Union Populaire Ecologique et Sociale (NUPES) coalition nor the one introduced by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party achieved an absolute majority (289 votes) on Monday, October 24. These no-confidence motions followed last week's two instances of the Article 49.3 procedure (allowing the government to force legislation through Parliament without a vote) on Wednesday and Thursday on the first part of the 2023 state budget and part of the social security budget.

With 239 votes in favor, the NUPES motion on the state budget was the one that obtained the most support. But they did not gather the votes to pass the motion, confirming that the two bills the government forced through without a vote were successfully adopted. Even so, when the result was announced, the left was pleased with the level of support, which they claimed weakened the executive branch. "There were only 50 votes needed for the motion of no confidence. Macron and Borne are weaker than ever," said MP Manuel Bompard of the left La France Insoumise (LFI) party.

While the failure of these motions was predictable, the president of the RN parliamentary group, Marine Le Pen, stunned the chamber during her speech by announcing the support of the 89 far-right MPs for the no-confidence motion introduced by the 151 NUPES MPs. The RN leader justified her choice by citing "national interest" and "the acceptable terms" in the motion tabled by the left, under the disbelieving gaze of the NUPES MPs. "We will never join a majority coalition with the RN, and we will never vote for a motion of no confidence from the far right," said Boris Vallaud, president of the Socialist group. The RN motion got 90 votes, including the vote of one La France Insoumise MP, Jean-Philippe Nilor.

Read more French government faces no-confidence votes after forcing through budget bill

The trap of the far right

This joint vote by the NUPES and RN was then criticized by the right and the presidential coalition, which was quick to denounce "an unnatural alliance" that does not constitute "an alternative majority to govern." "Does this mean that a coalition [to unseat the government] can get by without common values, shared convictions, coherent ambitions?" Prime Minister Borne demanded.

By announcing the support of her group for the left-wing motion, Ms. Le Pen also sought to trap the Les Républicains (LR, right) MPs. While the group led by Olivier Marleix has always claimed to be an opposition force and had announced its intention this summer not to vote on budget bills, the right-wing party has refused to vote on no-confidence motions coming from the left and the far right. However, with 62 seats, the LR faction had the possibility of voting for the NUPES bill with the RN to overturn Ms. Borne's government. "From now on, there is no doubt: [Les Républicains] are the allies of Emmanuel Macron," Ms. Le Pen declared. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of LFI, said, "The right wing barely saved the government."

Mr. Marleix assumed an intermediate position from the rostrum of the Assemblée Nationale. "Our responsibility is not to add to political instability that would leave the country paralyzed in the face of inflation and recession," he said, greeted by booing from MPs on the left and the far right. While insisting that his party would not hesitate to introduce a no-confidence motion in the future "if the circumstances require," Mr. Marleix also extended a hand to the prime minister. "Majorities are possible in this chamber," he said, referring to the issues of "immigration, security and state authority."

French government overcomes no-confidence votes unscathed but shaken (2)

Only four months after the legislative elections, these three no-confidence motions show the absence of a possible compromise between radicalized opposition groups and a government weakened by the repeated use of Article 49.3. The president of the Greens, Cyrielle Chatelain, opened the afternoon's debate with a resounding "You lie!" She accused the government of having failed in the face of the "environmental emergency." "This series of Article 49.3 bills will leave their mark," warned Green MP Marie-Charlotte Garin during the debate on the NUPES motion of no confidence on the social security budget, which gained 150 votes in the evening, this time without the votes of the RN.

Read more French government repeats Parliament-overruling procedure on social security budget

The opposition parties mainly criticized an executive branch "at the end of its reign," an expression used on both the left and the far right in the chamber. They blasted everything about Mr. Macron's way of governing from his promised new method of searching for compromises to the track record of the first 100 days of his second term. Faced with these attacks on the government's lack of direction, Ms. Borne responded by affirming that the "first objective [of] this majority is full employment." "Achieving this is the best way to put the emphasis back on the issue of wages and quality of life at work," she countered to the MPs on the left.

The most significant attacks on Ms. Borne came from her own majority coalition, in the voice of the president of the MoDem (center) group, Jean-Paul Mattei. From the rostrum of the Assemblée Nationale, the MP said he "regretted" that his amendment calling for the "temporary" taxation of "superdividends" – which was adopted with 19 votes from Renaissance (President Macron's party) – was not kept by the government in the bill adopted under Article 49.3. On the eve of resuming work on the social security budget, Mr. Mattei called on the government "to ask the right questions," considering – as if it were necessary to remind them – that "the France of 2022 is not the France of 2017."

Read more French government's overruling of Parliament is a collective failure

Jérémie Lamothe and Mariama Darame

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

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French government overcomes no-confidence votes unscathed but shaken (2025)
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