French PM survives first vote of no confidence

France’s newly appointed prime minister Gabriel Attal unsurprisingly survived his first vote of no confidence on February 5.

Attal unsurprisingly survived his first vote of no confidence on February 5, filed by all left-wing parties, with only 124 votes out of the required 289 – as both the far-right and conservatives announced ahead of time they would not support the motion.

The vote of no-confidence was filed by the Greens, the Communists, the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) and the Socialists (PS) just minutes before Attal’s first major policy speech on January 30, in which he set out his government’s priorities for the years to come, according to Euractiv.

This is Attal’s first vote of no-confidence – and the 32nd since the 2022 legislative elections, which left pro-Macron lawmakers short of an absolute majority by 40-odd seats.

None have succeeded, however. Parties from the far-left and the far-right, who held the pen for most of the no-confidence votes filed, almost always refused to vote for each other’s motions.

The conservative Les Républicains (LR) party, stuck in an ideological bind between the far-right and the more liberal pro-Macron side, have often stayed clear of voting altogether, hoping to present themselves as the only ‘constructive’ opposition party.

Predictably, both the RN and the LR confirmed they would not support the motion this time around – meaning that with 124 votes from the left, it fell considerably short of the absolute majority of 289 votes needed for the motion to be adopted, and the government to fall.