Hello and welcome to NewsAft.

The BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. I'm James Menendez.

And we're going to begin today in France. A country currently right in the middle of a political crisis unknown for more than 60 years.

That's because last night the National Assembly passed a motion of no confidence in the

government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier, following his attempt earlier in the week to force

through a new budget for 2025. The government in turn collapsed and today Mr Barnier has been

to the Alise Palace in Paris to formally hand in his resignation to President Macron, the man who appointed

him just three months ago. So, at the moment, France, one of the powerhouses of the European

Union, politically and economically, has no prime minister, effectively no government and no new

budget. Mr Macron is due to address the nation in five hours time. Let's talk to

Victor Gourri LaFont, French politics reporter at Politico Europe. Victor, very good to have you with us

here on News' hour. Now, the National Assembly did manage to muster a majority to oust Michel Barnier,

but it is deeply divided. Is there anyone Mr. Macron could appoint

as the next Prime Minister who might be able to unite that assembly? Yeah, that's exactly right.

There was a majority against Barnier, which doesn't mean that in turn there's a majority in

favor of anyone else. So at this point, really, it's it's anyone's call in terms of, is there one political

personality or maybe someone from, you know, outside the political sphere who would be

able to manage to effectively secure enough votes to have a stable government, at least until

next summer, because next summer is the

next period during which new elections could be held if the political crisis isn't solved by then.

What you need to keep in mind is that the French National Assembly is effectively divided into

three blocks. There's the left, the center right, and the far right. And these three

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