What’s going to happen? Two votes to decide fate of governmentpublished at 08:57 BST
08:57 BST
Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor
There will be two confidence votes in France’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, in the National Assembly – but only one has a chance of success.
One motion lodged by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally will fail because most French MPs don’t want to be seen voting with the far right.
But the other vote will be far tighter.
That’s a motion proposed by the radical-left France Unbowed party (La France Insoumise or LFI in French) which several opposition parties, including Le Pen’s party will line up behind.
If it’s to succeed in bringing down Lecornu’s fledgling government it will need to attract 289 votes to win a simple majority.
So it’s all about numbers and most estimates give the anti-Lecornu camp up to 282 votes, but nothing is really certain until the votes are counted.
LFI, the Communists, Greens and National Rally and its allies add up to 265. But then there are several MPs from other parties that will join them – from the Socialists, Liot, the Independents and maybe some conservative Republicans too.
It’s really too tight for Lecornu to be sure of survival until the votes are in.
