End of grace for the French government led by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. The centrist team faced three no-confidence motions in the National Assembly on Monday. None stood any real chance of passage. The opposition, though numerically strong, is split between competing ideological currents.
“Censorship cannot be just a stance, the consequences must be borne by those who wield power. We must consider what an alternative majority would look like. I cannot imagine, for a moment, how the RN and NUPES could govern together”, Borne asserted as the opposition fractured. The motions, launched by the left coalition NUPES (two) and a third by the far-right National Rally (RN) in response to last week’s approval of the 2023 budget and social security changes via a controversial Article 49.3, were designed to force parliamentary judgment while allowing the government to avoid a direct vote.
Support for the government hinged on a slender margin: 239 votes in favor from the left and 90 from the far right. The third vote was scheduled for Monday night. Each attempt fell well short of the 289 votes needed to secure an absolute majority. President Emmanuel Macron warned at the end of September that any successful no-confidence motion would lead to an immediate dissolution of parliament and early general elections.
Minority government, divided opposition
Cyrielle Chatelain, environmental lawyer and one of the NUPES speakers, described Article 49.3 as a weapon of the weak, used by those with fewer arguments. NUPES, a coalition of France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, Greens, and Communists, remains the main opposition bloc in Parliament with 151 seats. The Greens’ leader added that the budget measures signaled a push toward economic liberalism paired with climate inaction.
In this backdrop, the budget includes about 16 billion euros in measures to support households amid the energy crisis. The accounts for the coming year lean toward tax relief and a reassessment of private investments, aiming to stimulate recovery after the COVID-19 downturn. The House approved a special tax on the so-called super dividends following an amendment introduced by a centrist deputy. Thanks to Article 49.3, the 2023 budget was effectively steered through with executive flexibility.
Although the president lost the absolute majority in June’s parliamentary elections, the government continues to govern as a minority. After a summer in which key laws were advanced through executive power, the autumn period has seen Republican resistance harden. The Macron administration chose to deploy 49.3 as a parliamentary lever, bracing for potential changes from a more demanding right-wing bloc and an opposition capable of modifying several budget provisions. This stance was viewed as a parliamentary setback for the executive.
“Looks like they didn’t get the message”
Marine Le Pen of the RN criticized the leadership for lacking humility, stating that the message from the June 19 legislative round should have been heeded. Le Pen did not accept the no-confidence motion, and RN deputies largely abstained from supporting it. Nonetheless, 89 RN deputies backed the NUPES motions in a notable show of cross-cutting support.
Regionalist lawmakers from Corsica, Brittany, and other areas, along with some LR representatives, opposed the three no-confidence votes. One regionalist elder warned that political instability would hurt the country at a moment when inflation presses on households. Another voter from the regionalist camp, Bertrand Pancher, urged governance reform in the National Assembly to avoid a dangerous cycle of political strife. Four months after the election, the Borne government has endured four no-confidence motions and remained in power as a minority, a consequence of the Fifth Republic’s strong executive framework.
Yet the public mood favors a more stable approach. Recent polls show the prime minister slipping five points in popularity to 38 percent, while the president lingers at 35 percent. The autumn wave has been marked by ripples of discontent, including strikes at fuel depots. Although some refinery workers resumed activity after partial concessions, strikes persisted at two sites, with only about 10 percent reporting disruptions at fuel stations. For a government already navigating parliamentary turbulence, this represented a tentative reprieve.