Dr Oliver Hartwich: Macron stuck in a constitutional dead end

Last week, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier faced parliament defiantly. Despite lacking a majority, he tried to push through controversial reforms using Article 49.3 of the Constitution – a mechanism allowing the government to bypass parliamentary votes.

He paid a heavy price for his defiance. In an unprecedented move, an unlikely coalition of left and right-wing parties united to pass a vote of no confidence, bringing down his government and plunging France into a constitutional crisis.

Tarik Cyril Amar: France is a perfect example of centrist elites wrecking the West

Political crises seem to be taking down Western nations one by one, their leaders clinging to hubris and showing a disdain for democracy.

It is almost as if some EU capitals have a tenacious death wish. After Berlin’s amazing and ongoing self-Morgenthauing act of industrial suicide for the greater glory of America’s NATO and Zelensky’s Ukraine, Paris is now self-Waterlooing. As France’s newly-discharged prime minister Michel Barnier almost correctly noted, the “country is going through a profound crisis.”