French Government Faces No-Confidence Vote Over Budget Bill

Prime Minister Michel Barnier of France faces a no-confidence vote this week after he pushed through a budget bill without a final parliamentary vote on Monday, making a government collapse increasingly likely.

The move angered opposition parties, and lawmakers from both a left-wing alliance and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party swiftly filed motions for no-confidence votes. They are expected as early as Wednesday.

That prospect of the government’s falling — and worries that France might not pass a budget by years’ end — have rattled financial markets, sharply increased the country’s borrowing costs and further deepened the turmoil that has gripped the country since snap elections last summer yielded no clear parliamentary majority.

Mr. Barnier, a veteran center-right politician, used a constitutional provision to push the bill through without a vote because, despite a series of concessions, he could not win approval from Ms. Le Pen, who has played the role of kingmaker since the snap elections last summer. His own coalition of centrists and conservatives did not have enough votes to pass the budget bill.

Mr. Barnier and his cabinet, both appointed by President Emmanuel Macron just three months ago, are now on borrowed time. If they fall this week — as many expect — they will become the most short-lived government in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, which was founded in 1958, and the first to fall to a no-confidence vote since 1962.

Mr. Macron will remain as president, but he will need to appoint a new prime minister, mere weeks before a constitutionally mandated deadline of Dec. 21 to finalize next year’s budget. That would throw the country into uncharted political, legal and economic territory.