French Prime Minister Barnier resigns as country's political crisis deepens

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier will resign on Thursday after far-right and leftist lawmakers voted to topple his government, plunging the euro zone's second-largest economy deeper into political crisis. Barnier, a veteran politician who was formerly the European Union's Brexit negotiator, will be the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history after he hands in his resignation at around 10 a.m. No French government had lost a confidence vote since Georges Pompidou's in 1962. The hard left and far right punished Barnier in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday evening for trying to push an unpopular budget through an unruly hung parliament without a vote. The draft budget had sought 60 billion euros ($63 billion) in savings in a drive to shrink a gaping deficit. Barnier's resignation caps weeks of tensions over the budget, which Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally said was too harsh on working people. It also further weakens the standing of President Emmanuel Macron, who precipitated the ongoing crisis with an ill-fated decision to call a snap election in June. Macron, who faces growing calls to resign, has a mandate until 2027 and cannot be pushed out.

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