French govt survives no-confidence votes in National Assembly

PARIS -- The French government led by Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes on Wednesday after deputies in the National Assembly rejected the motions.

The motions, submitted separately by the hard-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) and the far-right National Rally (RN), accused the government of failing to defend France's interests in negotiations over the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement.

The motion put forward by LFI last Friday garnered 256 votes, falling 32 votes short of the 288 required for adoption, according to the National Assembly. The second motion, tabled by RN on Monday, was also rejected, receiving 142 votes, well below the threshold needed to bring down the government.

Last Friday, European Union (EU) member states gave provisional backing to the EU-Mercosur trade deal in a qualified-majority vote, paving the way for the bloc to formally sign the agreement in Paraguay, EU sources said. France, Poland, Austria, Ireland and Hungary voted against the deal, while Belgium abstained.

Following the EU vote, Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI parliamentary group, said on social media platform X that France had been "humiliated" in Brussels by the agreement.

Lecornu rejected the criticism, saying on X that the motion reflected a deliberate attempt to highlight domestic political divisions and weaken France's voice, rather than demonstrate unity in defending the country's agricultural sector.