No-Confidence Vote Topples French Government

“A no-confidence vote in the French parliament on Wednesday has triggered the collapse of the government, plunging the country into political chaos and stoking anxiety about the euro zone’s second biggest economy,” the Washington Post reports.

“Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s administration becomes the shortest-serving government in the modern French republic and the first in six decades to be toppled by a no-confidence vote. Although the motion was put forward by a leftwing alliance, the swing votes of Marine Le Pen and her far-right lawmakers, wielding unprecedented influence, were key to its passage.”

“The trouble is, there’s no obvious cast of characters who could form a stable government.”