Frances PM risks tumbling in hostile parliament vote [Video]

France’s Prime Minister Michel Barnier faces the biggest risk yet of being deposed by a hostile parliament as his government presents Monday a social security financing plan that has the opposition up in arms.

Barnier, a conservative appointed by President Emmanuel Macron in September after an inconclusive general election, has no majority in parliament and lives under the constant threat of a no-confidence vote that would, if successful, force him and his team to step down.

Key to any such vote is Marine Le Pen, the parliamentary leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) that has expressed its opposition to several aspects of the government’s 2025 budget plan, including the social security financing project to be debated in the lower-house National Assembly on Monday afternoon.

These include planned cuts in employer social contributions, a partial end to inflation-indexing of pensions and a less generous prescription drug reimbursement policy.

If Barnier …