Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

Coming to you live from London, I'm Sean Lay.

Since a snap general election in the summer resulted in a French National Assembly paralysed

between a left-wing coalition of parties and the far-right national rally party led by Marine Le Pen,

uncertainty has swirled around the country's politics.

Tonight, that uncertainty has deepened.

The Assembly, France's Parliament brought down the government with 331 out of 574 members of the lower house, voting that they had no confidence in Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

Opposition parties called the vote after Mr Barnier used special powers to force through a controversial budget of social security reforms.

Ahead of this evening's vote during a fractious debate, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right national rally, accused the minority government of making insufficient budget concessions to avoid tonight's crisis.

She said Mr Barnier's budget would impose suffering on the French people.

This budget takes French people hostage, and most especially the most vulnerable. The poorer pensioners,

people with illness, impoverished workers. French people considered too rich

to receive aid, but not poor enough to escape a hammering from the taxman. In response,

Laurent Saint-Martin, the French Budget Minister, laid down this challenge to those MPs opposing

the budget. Do you want to deprive New Caledonia of a billion euros of budget. Do you want to deprive

New Caledonia of a billion euros of credit?

Do you want to prevent the financing of OPEC?

Do you want to prevent support for Ukraine?

Do you really want to prevent the payment

of the disabled adult allowance?

Say it frankly.

And thank you to all the people who are here who take their

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