French parties pile pressure on Macron’s govt

PARIS:

Two French political parties were Friday filing no-confidence motions against President Emmanuel Macron's government, ramping up pressure on his cabinet after months of deadlock.
Neither the move from the far right nor hard left are expected to garner enough votes to be a serious threat, but they show Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu still faces strong opposition from within the parliament that toppled his two predecessors.

France has been mired in political crisis since Macron in 2024 called snap polls which he hoped would consolidate his majority but instead ended up in a deeply divided lower house.

The no-confidence motions come despite Macron on Thursday saying France would vote against an EU trade deal that has upset French farmers.

Opposition parties accused Macron of doing too little too late, as the accord is expected to be signed next week.

Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally (RN), late Thursday said his party would be filing a no-confidence motion in French parliament over Macron "betraying French farmers".
He accused the president of "claiming today to oppose" the deal between the European Union and South American bloc Mercosur, "after years of negotiations without ever defending French interests".
More than 25 years in the making, the accord would create one of the world's biggest free-trade areas and allow EU countries to export more vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America.
But French farmers fear cheaper goods from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours will undercut them.
The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party on Friday filed its own motion to censure the government over what they said was their country being "humiliated in Brussels and also in Washington".
After the US operation to seize president Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela on Saturday, signatories denounced what they said was Macron being "incapable of condemning the United States' illegal and illegitimate war against Venezuela".