French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's government on Wednesday survived a second vote of no confidence in the National Assembly that had been called in protest against the EU-Mercosur trade deal.
The motion, filed by the far-right National Rally (RN) party, was backed by 142 members of parliament's lower house. 288 votes were needed for the motion to pass.
An earlier no-confidence motion filed by the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) on the same matter had also failed.
Despite French opposition, EU member states last week approved the signing of the long-debated deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
French farmers have been protesting for months against the deal they say threatens local agriculture by creating unfair competition with cheaper South American imports.
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Des tracteurs devant l'Assemblée nationale à Paris, le 13 janvier 2026, dans le cadre d'une nouvelle journée de mobilisation agricole à Paris. © Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt, AFP
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The RN and LFI accused the government of not doing enough to block it.
"Inside the country, you are a government of vassals serving the rich. Outside, you are humiliating our nation before the European Commission and the US empire," chief LFI lawmaker Mathilde Panot told the government, speaking in parliament ahead of Wednesday's no-confidence motion votes.
The Socialist Party had ruled out backing the no-confidence motions and the conservative Les Républicains also said they would not vote to censure the government over Mercosur.
As a result, both motions failed. The one tabled by LFI received only 256 votes in favour, 32 votes short of what was needed for the motion to pass. The second motion, put forward by the far right, received 142 votes in favour and also failed.
Lecornu said time spent on the no-confidence votes was further delaying fraught debates on the country's 2026 budget, which he said political leaders should instead focus on.
"You are acting like snipers lying in wait, firing into the executive’s back at the very moment when we must confront international disruptions," he said.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
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