French government on brink as Prime Minister faces no-confidence vote

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier is bracing for a no-confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday in which parties from the left and the right are expected to join forces to oust him after he forced through his budget without lawmakers’ consent.

National Assembly members are set to debate several no-confidence motions in Barnier, who has been in office for less than three months, with the European Union’s former chief Brexit negotiator and veteran conservative politician expected to lose due to a rare block vote by the leftist New Popular Front and the far-right National Front.

The two parties jointly command a 27-seat majority in the 577-seat lower house.The toppling of Barnier’s government is likely to intensify a growing political crisis, sparking concerns across the 27-country European Union that France is becoming impossible to govern and is being dragged down by a $175.3 billion and growing budget deficit.

President Emmanuel Macron appointed Barnier in September, over the heads of the parties that won the most seats in July elections, with the Herculean task of getting billions of euros of budget cuts to government spending, social security and local government through a parliament in which his Republicans Party holds just 51 seats.