Michel Barnier submitted resignation after being ousted in record time by vote of no confidence
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.