Michel Barnier resigns as France PM after humiliating no confidence vote | World | News

Michel Barnier submitted his resignation as France‘s Prime Minister on Thursday, hours after more than 330 French MPs voted to oust him on Wednesday evening.

Mr Barnier headed to the Elysee Palace, the official residence of Emmanuel Macron in Paris, on the morning of December 5, and held an hour-long meeting with the French President.

The Elysee later issued a statement, informing the public Mr Barnier would remain on in a caretaker capacity until a new Prime Minister is appointed.

Members of the National Assembly on both the far-left and far-right ends of the political spectrum joined forces to back a no-confidence motion that had been submitted on Monday.

The National Assembly approved the no confident motion by 331 votes, a crushing defeat for Mr Barnier as a minimum of 288 votes were needed.

Mr Barnier has now become the first Prime Minister to have lost a confidence vote since 1962.

And he now holds the record for the shortest-serving French Prime Minister, having been appointed only 91 days ago, on September 5.

Only six French leaders, including Mr Barnier, served as Prime Minister for less than a year since the Fifth Republic began in 1958.

The move that led to the collapse of the short-lived Barnier government came after the former EU’s chief negotiator on Brexit pushed through the French parliament’s lower house a social security budget using special powers, which didn’t require a final vote from the MPs.

Mr Macron now faces a difficult choice, as he needs to find another Prime Minister after the July’s legislative elections produced a deeply-divided parliament.

In light of the major political gamble taken by Mr Macron in June, when he called for snap elections after a devastating result for his centrist force at the EU election, the French parliament is now divided into three blocs – the left-wing New Popular Front coalition, the centrist allies and the far-right National Rally.