Marine Le Pen has intensified her threat to bring down France’s minority government after failing to win concessions from Michel Barnier, the prime minister, reports The Times.
The National Rally leader left a meeting with the conservative leader of the centrist-conservative coalition, saying he had not budged on any of her demands to ease the burden on poorer households in the draft 2025 budget.
Last week Le Pen, 56, ended her hard-right party’s tacit support for the government and threatened that unless concessions were made she could join a left-wing no-confidence vote that could topple it.
“My position has not changed,” Le Pen said as she left the Hôtel Matignon, the prime minister’s mansion in Paris. “No more, it seems, than that of the prime minister has changed.”
Asked if the Rally would back a no-confidence motion, she said: “Of course.”
Barnier has acknowledged that his government is in danger of collapse if the hard right joins the left in what he calls a “coalition of opposites” against his minority administration, which he assembled after President Macron appointed him following the inconclusive parliamentary elections in the summer.
He is arguing that the French people do not want more political chaos and failure to tackle a crisis over its runaway budget deficit, which is expected to reach 6 per cent of GDP this year.
His ministers are raising the spectre of a “Greek-style” financial crisis if markets cannot be convinced that the government can bring the economy under control with its plan for €60 billion of savings in next year’s budget.