Emmanuel Macron appears to have few good options after Michel Barnier’s government became the first to fall from a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years

The French prime minister, Michel Barnier, resigned on Thursday morning, after far-right and leftist lawmakers joined forces to topple his government only three months after it took office.

Barnier and his government will stay on in a caretaker capacity, taking care of day-to-day business until the appointment of a new government, the Élysée said in a statement on Thursday.

Michel Barnier resigns as prime minister but will stay on in caretaker role until new government is appointment

The French president Emmanuel Macron has held meetings with parliament and senate leaders before a speech to the nation on Thursday evening, as pressure grows for him to swiftly appoint a new prime minister in the wake of the French government’s historic collapse.

The rightwing prime minister, Michel Barnier, met Macron for just over an hour in order to hand in his resignation letter, a day after his minority coalition became the first to be toppled by a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years and only three months after it took office.

As president prepares to appoint his next prime minister, we take a look at how the complex parliamentary arithmetic may shape his choice

As French president Emmanuel Macron attempts to find a new prime minister to replace Michel Barnier, who lost a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, his choices will be guided by whether he can secure approval for his choice from the national assembly, the lower house of the French parliament.

The incoming prime minister would need the support of 288 deputies to survive another no-confidence vote, but could govern on simple majorities for individual bills.

New PM Michel Barnier says he will not increase the tax burden and says the number of migrants ‘has become unbearable’

Germany’s Social Democratic party (SPD) narrowly won yesterday’s election in Brandenburg – and the party leadership is now downplaying questions about Olaf Scholz’s candidacy in next year’s national election.

“Yesterday’s election gives us courage that we can do it, but of course I also know that the challenges and the questions we have to deal with at national level are far from dealt with as a result of yesterday evening,” the party’s co-leader, Lars Klingbeil, said today, the Associated Press reported.

Klingbeil reiterated that that Scholz’s candidacy isn’t in question.

“There is absolutely no wobbling,” he said. “In the leadership of the party, the parliamentary group, among the state governors and ministers, there is no discussion about this in any place.”

Critics of new cabinet, finalised by Michel Barnier on Saturday night, said it was ‘same-old, same-old’

Mounting threats of a parliamentary motion of no-confidence have put Michel Barnier’s new government under considerable duress before it has even had a chance to start work, as street protesters continued to voice their anger over the French prime minister’s new administration.

Eleven weeks after Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, called a snap general election, the new government was finally appointed on Saturday night. But there was little sense that the new cabinet, which signals a clear shift to the right, would bring calm into the political realm.

New cabinet likely to face immediate no-confidence motion from leftwing bloc sidelined by president

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has named a new government led by the prime minister, Michel Barnier, marked by a shift to the right 11 weeks after an inconclusive parliamentary election.

The first major task for Barnier, appointed just more than two weeks ago, will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France’s financial situation, which the prime minister this week called “very serious”.