France: Attal Avoids No-Confidence Motions Before EU Elections
French National Assembly, June 3, 2024. | Photo: X/ @laprovence
June 3, 2024 Hour: 5:00 pm
The motions were presented by the National Rally and Insoumise France parties.
On Monday, two “Motions of No Confidence” against the French administration led by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal failed, just six days before the European elections.
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The motions were presented by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party and the left-wing the Insoumise France (LFI) party. Unsurprisingly, neither motion secured the absolute majority of votes required in the National Assembly to overthrow the Executive.
The motion of no confidence that came closest to succeeding was the one presented by the Insoumise France, which obtained 222 out of the 289 votes needed.
The National Rally’s motion of no confidence garnered only 89 votes, as the left-wing opposition had warned that it would not support their initiative.
Previously, Prime Minister Attal tried to discredit this double attempt to remove him, using the main argument that the RN and LFI were acting in concert with the goal of creating “democratic and economic disorder.”
A month ago, the two opposition groups demanded that the French government present a new budget for 2024, arguing that the budget approved in the autumn was drawn up knowing that its forecasts were completely unrealistic.
They based their request on the 2023 deficit figures, which reached 5.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) when the government had expected 4.9 percent.
In defending his motion of no confidence, LFI legislator Matthias Tavel attacked Prime Minister Attal’s budget forecasts, considering them “fantasy.”
“You are the prime minister of budgetary chaos… What is your hidden agenda after the European elections?” he asked, also criticizing Attal for not wanting to recognize the Palestinian state.
On the other hand, RN legislator Sebastien Chenu attacked the “lamentable management of public finances” by Attal’s administration and claimed that the budget “was not sincere.”
EFE
teleSUR/ JF
