MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In France, Prime Minister Michel Barnier made a last-ditch attempt to rally support for his government on TV tonight. Far-left and far-right members of Parliament are preparing to bring the government down in a no-confidence vote tomorrow. If the vote passes, Barnier will have to resign, and his government - in place less than three months - will collapse. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Speaking French).
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Millions of French tuned in to watch Prime Minister Michel Barnier's interview on the nightly news. Asked if he thought he could save his government, Barnier replied...
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MICHEL BARNIER: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "I hope so, and I think it's possible. It depends if members of Parliament, despite their differences, can take responsibility before their voters and before France, which is in a grave situation."
Barnier was chosen prime minister by President Emmanuel Macron September 5, following snap elections in July in which Macron's party lost its majority. Now the Parliament is divided into three blocs, with the far right and far left dominating. Mainstream Barnier negotiated Brexit between the European Union and Great Britain and was seen as someone who could perhaps get the French to compromise with each other. At the heart of the matter is the 2025 budget, which contains new taxes and cuts in benefits in an attempt to address France's spiraling deficit.
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BEARDSLEY: Parliament went into an uproar when Barnier announced he would ram the budget through using a constitutional clause because he doesn't have the votes to pass it. The far left has been threatening to vote a motion of no confidence for weeks and calling on President Macron to resign. But far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose party is the largest in parliament, has held out. Then suddenly over the weekend, she said she'd joined the left to oust the government.
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MARINE LE PEN: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "Our red lines - we didn't just pull them out of a hat," she said. "It's profoundly unjust to make the French pay the consequences of the incompetence of Emmanuel Macron's policies for the last seven years."
While many agree France must tighten the belt, they also feel Macron is responsible for the chaos. They say he did not have to call the risky snap elections last summer that produced this unruly Parliament. Speaking from Saudi Arabia tonight, Macron said he would never resign and did not believe the Parliament would actually carry through with this. The French will find out tomorrow as the no-confidence motions are debated and voted. If they pass, Macron will be sent back to the drawing board to find another prime minister, and France, a leading EU nation, will be plunged into uncertainty. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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