France’s Macron pledges to stay in office until end of term

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron said this week he will stay on “until the end” of his five-year term, until May 2027, after a no-confidence vote in parliament toppled the government.

Speaking to the nation in a televised address on Thursday, Macron said he would name a new prime minister in the “coming days”.

“The mandate you have given me is for five years, and I will exercise it until the very end,” Macron asserted during the 10-minute speech.

He pointed blame at his opponents on the far right for bringing down the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier. He said they chose “not to do but to undo”.

“They chose disorder,” he said, adding the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front”, and stressed that “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility”.

A total of 331 lawmakers in France’s 577-seat National Assembly voted to remove the government in the no-confidence vote on Wednesday, forcing Barnier to step down after three months in office – the shortest tenure of any prime minister in modern French history.

A protester holds a placard reading “(French President) Macron, you stink, get out” during a rally in Marseille on December 5, 2024, as part of a day of action and strike in the public sector. – Civil servants in France are mobilizing on December 5, 2024 for a day of action and strikes called by public service unions to open up a social front in the midst of a political crisis, the day after Michel Barnier’s government fell on a motion of no-confidence. Barnier submitted his resignation in a meeting with Macron at the Elysee Palace.