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French parliament votes to oust Michel Barnier’s government

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French parliament votes to oust Michel Barnier’s government

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The French parliament on Wednesday voted to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier over his proposed deficit-cutting budget, plunging the country into deeper political turmoil.

A motion of no confidence was approved by 331 votes in the 577 member national assembly, as Marine Le Pen’s far-right party teamed up with a leftist bloc to bring down Barnier’s minority government.

Barnier’s administration has collapsed without adopting his contentious 2025 budget that included €60bn in tax increases and spending cuts to reduce France’s deficit, which will reach 6 per cent of GDP this year.

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President Emmanuel Macron will now have to select another prime minister, a task made difficult by a raucous parliament divided into three blocs, none of which is close to having a governing majority.

Barnier’s three-month term as prime minister was the shortest of any premier since France’s Fifth Republic was founded in 1958. It is only the second time a government has been voted down since then. 

The political tumult gripping France comes just weeks after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition collapsed, leaving the EU’s two most powerful states in limbo.

Barnier defended his record as prime minister during a national assembly debate before the confidence vote, telling lawmakers: “I have been and am proud to act to build rather than to destroy.”

He said it was “not for pleasure” that he had presented a difficult budget. France’s fiscal “reality will not disappear by the enchantment of a motion of censure”, he added.

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Macron will have to contend with an emboldened Le Pen and her Rassemblement National party, which was decisive in removing Barnier after spurning his last-ditch attempts at a compromise on his budget.

Le Pen said her decision to censure Barnier was prompted by the “necessity to put an end to the chaos, to spare the French people from a dangerous, unfair and punitive budget”.

Macron “is largely responsible for the current situation”, Le Pen told TF1 television shortly after the vote.

When the president appoints a new prime minister, that person would work on a new budget which Rassemblement National “will construct with other forces in the national assembly”, she added.

Mathilde Panot, a leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, slammed Barnier for seeking deals with the Rassemblement National to try to stay in power.

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“Barnier tried to escape censure by choosing dishonour, he has gotten dishonour and censure,” she said.

Marie Lebec, a lawmaker from Macron’s centrist alliance and former minister, said her fellow parliamentarians should put aside party squabbling to find a way forward.

The political crisis risks further spooking financial markets. Barnier had previously warned of a financial and economic “storm” should his government fall without adopting the 2025 budget, saying borrowing costs were on track to exceed €60bn next year, more than the French defence budget.

French borrowing costs on its 10-year sovereign bond hit a 12-year high against Germany’s last week, as investors fretted about the likely failure of Barnier’s government.

After the confidence vote on Wednesday, the euro was flat against the dollar at $1.052, reflecting how the result was widely expected.

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Barnier may stay on as a caretaker premier for a short time, but it will fall to his successor to craft another 2025 budget, ahead of a year-end deadline.

In the meantime, Macron and parliament have several options to pass emergency measures that would avoid a government shutdown and keep public services funded temporarily.

But unlike previously when he procrastinated on picking premiers, Macron aimed to move quickly this time, said a person familiar with his thinking, and he has drawn up a list of potential candidates to succeed Barnier.

The Elysée said Macron would address the nation on Thursday evening in a televised speech.

Barnier was appointed by Macron in September after the president’s centrist alliance lost snap parliamentary elections, which increased the ranks of the far right and leftist parties.

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His departure is a sign of how gridlocked French institutions have become since the elections.

“It feels like a series of impasses in a parliament where no one has a workable majority,” said Bruno Cautrès, political scientist at Sciences Po. “There is a risk that a new government would fall quickly, just as Barnier has done.”

Additional reporting by Ian Smith in London

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Allianz pauses talks with Amundi to form €2.8tn asset management giant

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Allianz pauses talks with Amundi to form €2.8tn asset management giant

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Allianz has paused talks with Amundi and its majority shareholder Crédit Agricole over plans to combine its €560bn investment management arm with its larger French rival, according to people familiar with the situation. 

The two sides had been in on-and-off discussions for more than a year, and were in exclusive talks to form a European giant with almost €2.8tn of assets under management as recently as Saturday morning. Some of the people said the talks could resume at a later date.

The hiatus illustrates the difficulty of pulling off large-scale mergers and acquisitions in asset management and comes as a wave of consolidation is sweeping across the industry, with recent deals including BNP Paribas’s €5bn acquisition of Axa Investment Managers to create a €1.5tn European champion.

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A key sticking point between Allianz and Crédit Agricole has been the structure of any tie-up, according to people familiar with the situation. They have struggled to agree on who would have control of an enlarged entity.

Amundi, which was created in 2010 through the merger of the asset management arms of French banks Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, has grown into Europe’s largest asset manager, with €2.2tn in assets and a €13.75bn market capitalisation.

Assuming a valuation of at least €6bn, Allianz Global Investors would have been worth about half as much as Amundi while having roughly a quarter of its assets. 

But the German group’s parent insurer was only willing to accept a transaction which would have given it a co-leadership role, some of the people said.

Allianz declined to comment on specifics but told the FT that asset management was “strategically integral” to the group and said that Allianz Global Investors was “performing well”. 

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It stressed that it would “only consider inorganic growth opportunities that enhance these strengths and increase our exposure to asset management.” 

A spokesperson for Amundi told the FT on Saturday afternoon: “Amundi is not in discussions with Allianz.” The French group declined to comment further. 

Crédit Agricole is Amundi’s largest shareholder, with a 69 per cent holding. The asset manager has a 29 per cent free float. Crédit Agricole did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For Allianz, a precondition for any successful tie-up would have been “a shared understanding of partnership at a technical and cultural level”, according to one person familiar with its position.

Others said that while Amundi saw a potential transaction as an “acquisition” of Allianz Global Investors, the Germans wanted a partnership that would help increase its income from asset management. 

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Some people in Amundi’s camp had envisaged a set-up where Crédit Agricole would remain the controlling shareholder of the enlarged asset manager with a stake just above 50 per cent. Allianz would then become Amundi’s second-largest shareholder with a stake of around 30 per cent, and a roughly 20 per cent free float, people familiar with the situation said. 

But the Germans pushed back on this structure as they wanted a more balanced split, the people added. 

More recently, the two sides appeared to have come closer to an agreement. A person familiar with the matter said that Crédit Agricole seemed prepared to dilute its holding below 50 per cent in order to allow Allianz to have a larger stake in Amundi as part of a combination.

Within Allianz, some opposition to an Amundi tie-up has reflected concerns about losing both strategic flexibility and control of its asset management business, while allowing the French side to get the benefit of synergies between the two businesses.

Amundi is one of the industry’s most profitable players, and is seen as having excelled at striking tie-ups with retail banks to distribute its products.

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Investment managers are pursuing scale, growth markets and new clients as margins are squeezed by higher costs, lower fees and the march of large American firms into the European market.

Meanwhile banks and insurers are weighing up their commitment to their investment management divisions and evaluating the merits of doubling down, striking strategic partnerships or quitting the business. 

Earlier this year, Amundi held talks to buy Axa Investment Managers from its parent insurer but was not able to agree terms, according to two people familiar with the situation. In August, Axa announced a €5bn deal to offload the business to banking group BNP Paribas after concluding that it was subscale. 

France’s Natixis, which is majority owned by Groupe BPCE, is also in talks with Italy’s Generali about a potential tie-up, the FT reported last month.

Allianz has in the past held discussions with Germany’s DWS about a potential asset management tie-up, but these are no longer live, according to people close to DWS. 

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Activists worry that Trump will bulldoze trans rights. Here's how they're preparing

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Activists worry that Trump will bulldoze trans rights. Here's how they're preparing

Supporters of transgender rights hold signs as they rally outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., as arguments begin in a case regarding a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.

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Afraid. Disappointed. Frustrated.

This is how Giovanni Santiago is feeling after former President Donald Trump’s reelection victory.

“What I do believe is that LGBTQ people, specifically trans people, are a target for him, and are a target for his fan base,” Santiago, who is trans, says about the president-elect.

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The 38-year-old lives in Ohio, where state law has banned gender-affirming care for youths and participation of transgender girls and women on girls and women’s sports teams. He is seeing and feeling the impacts of the political fight over rights for transgender people every day.

Nationally, the issue of gender-affirming care for minors was before the Supreme Court this week, after families challenged Tennessee’s ban.

Santiago, a local activist in Cleveland, isn’t alone in how he feels.

Giovanni Santiago, a transgender rights advocate who lives in Ohio, is preparing for a tough four years under a second Trump administration.

Giovanni Santiago, a transgender rights advocate who lives in Ohio, is preparing for a tough four years under a second Trump administration.

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“Many in our community, particularly trans people and their families, are filled with anxiety and fear about what a second Trump presidency could bring,” says Ash Lazarus Orr, with Advocates for Trans Equality. The group works to strengthen and protect the rights of transgender people through policy advocacy, political work and legal support.

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Restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors and barring trans women from women’s sports teams covered by Title IX are just some of the policies that Trump’s campaign has said will be under consideration once he is in office.

Local advocates, trans people and their families, as well as national LGBTQ organizations are preparing for these potential Trump administration actions.

“We know that the next four years [are] going to be a grind,” Santiago says.

That means the work — on both policy and personal levels — is just beginning, Santiago and others tell NPR.

Trans-rights activists holding signs protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City in 2023.

Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City before the 2023 State of the State address.

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The political climate ushering in Trump

Republicans ramped up anti-trans messaging in the 2024 campaign. According to a report by AdImpact shared with NPR, the Republican Party spent $222 million on anti-trans ads during the campaign; overall ad spending by the party totaled $993 million.

Topics like gender-affirming care and trans women in sports have galvanized many American voters, says Andrew Proctor, an assistant instructional professor of political science who teaches courses on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender politics at the University of Chicago.

Recent polling shows that 76% of Americans say they support nondiscrimination laws for LGBTQ communities.

And, yet, on the issue of transgender athletes, polling also indicates that a large majority of Americans, around 70%, say they should be allowed to compete only on teams that match their sex assigned at birth.

Trump returns to the White House at a time when half of all U.S. states ban transgender people under 18 from receiving gender-affirming health care. And 26 states have restrictions on transgender students participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, according to Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that tracks LGBTQ-related laws.

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The new Trump administration will likely look at what states have accomplished and use that as a playbook for what could be achieved legislatively at the federal level, Proctor says.

But the big question for Proctor is how high of a priority trans issues will be on the Trump agenda.

“They’re polarizing issues, and they do galvanize particular bases of the Republican Party,” he says.

That also was the case for anti-abortion policies, Proctor says, and yet Republicans were unable to pass legislation when they had control of the federal government under former President George W. Bush and for a time during Trump’s first term. “So it’s not clear if this issue will pan out any differently,” he says.

Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion, was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.

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Since the presidential election, one Republican, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, has introduced legislation that appears to single out newly elected Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first transgender lawmaker to serve in the U.S. Congress.

If passed, the bill would ban transgender women from using bathrooms and locker rooms on federal property that do not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Prepping for policies under Trump

Demonstrators gather on the steps to the Texas Capitol and wave flags while speaking against transgender-related legislation bills being considered in the Texas Senate and House in 2021, in Austin, Texas.

Demonstrators gather near the steps to the Texas Capitol to speak against transgender-related legislation bills being considered in the Texas Senate and House in 2021, in Austin, Texas.

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Groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Transgender Law Center and others are gearing up to combat Trump policies on trans Americans in the courts.

It’s a battle they’re familiar with.

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During his first term, Trump attempted to ban transgender Americans from serving in the military and from receiving gender-affirming health care through the military. This effort faced legal challenges and was eventually overturned by President Biden’s administration.

When asked about the possibility of a ban on transgender people serving in the military during a second Trump administration, Trump-Vance transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told NPR that “no decisions” have been made on the issue. The transition team did not respond to other questions from NPR, including those about gender-affirming care for trans youths.

Another proposal during Trump’s first term — which intended to strip “sex discrimination” protections for trans people from health care laws — was challenged in court by a coalition of LGBTQ clinics and organizations. That was successfully blocked in court.

And at least 17 states are facing lawsuits challenging their laws and policies limiting youth access to gender-affirming care.

“Litigation will be essential, but it will not be enough,” Sruti Swaminathan, a staff attorney with the ACLU, said during a recent GLAAD media call. “We will engage on every advocacy front, including mobilizing and organizing our network of millions of ACLU members and activists in every state to work to protect LGBTQ people from the dangerous policies of a second Trump administration.”

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Winning hearts and minds

Proctor says the electoral success of anti-trans messaging will embolden certain factions of the Republican Party. “We should expect that the anti-trans rhetoric is going to intensify,” he says.

Activists like Santiago and another Ohio resident, Rick Colby, say a major part of their work for the next four years will be pushing back against that anti-trans rhetoric.

Colby, 64, describes himself as a conservative Republican. He also has a son named Ashton who is trans. Colby, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, is in an unusual position: He voted for Trump, but plans to spend the next four years working with his 32-year-old son to fight anti-trans policies. He says he is happy the Republican Party will be in control of the federal government, but also very concerned about the party’s stance on trans issues, which he says “is awful.”

Rick Colby, 64, right, wears sunglasses . His 32-year-old son Ashton, left, wears a baseball cap. They both wear backpacks and are photographed with a backdrop of trees and mountains.

Rick Colby of Columbus, Ohio, right, and his son Ashton work as advocates on trans issues across the nation. Colby says their work will continue during the Trump administration.

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“Talking is where the education comes in,” Santiago says during a separate conversation with NPR. He is the founder of META Center Inc., a group that offers direct support to transgender and gender-nonconforming people online and in person.

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Over the next few months, he says he will be partnering with several organizations to provide training and plans to participate in panel discussions about the state of being transgender in America — and Ohio specifically.

He plans to meet people “where they are” — in libraries, in town halls or over email — to share information about trans people and dispel incorrect, preconceived notions about LGBTQ communities. A conversation between people on different sides of an issue can lead to a meeting in the middle and even common ground, he says.

Take gender-affirming care for youths. Major medical groups in the U.S. — including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association — support access to gender-affirming care for youth with gender dysphoria, the discomfort or psychological distress caused when one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity are different. That care can range from using a child’s preferred pronouns to using puberty-blocking medications and sex hormones.

But, Santiago says, many people don’t know the facts about the issue. Trump’s campaign website says that he plans to “revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called ‘gender affirming care’—a process that includes giving kids puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children.”

As a result, Santigao says, there’s an incorrect belief, spread during the election and by Trump, that young children are undergoing gender-affirming surgery — which is actually a rare occurrence.

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Similar to Santiago’s efforts, Colby and his son will continue what they’ve been doing for years: meeting lawmakers face-to-face and talking about their experiences. Their work has brought them to Capitol Hill before and he expects it will again.

“We’re just being human,” Colby says. “We try to demystify the issue and humanize it. They hear the narratives being pushed about all these left-wing parents pushing their kids into being transgender. And, of course, obviously, anybody would be concerned if that’s the only thing you’re hearing.”

There’s a segment of the GOP that, in his experience, offers openness and kindness on the issue.

“My son and I are just going to keep trying to reach that kind of undecided middle group of people,” he says.

What groups are doing now

Lazarus Orr from Advocates for Trans Equality says there are steps people can begin taking now. The group recommends trans people update documents, including driver’s licenses and passports, to reflect desired name or gender marker changes ahead of January.

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Lazarus also encourages people not to let anxiety and fear control them.

“I think one of the bravest things that trans folks can do right now is just continue living,” he says. “More than ever, just the simple act of our existence is a form of resistance.”

Giovanni Santiago, in a white T-shirt, chops vegetables on a cutting board in a kitchen while looking at a woman with brown hair and glasses.

Santiago says his work and life will continue even in the face of opposition.

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It’s advice Santiago, the Ohio activist, takes to heart. To counter his fear and stress, he finds moments of joy while watching football with his family (“Roll Tide, baby”), decorating for the holidays and proudly embracing his identity as a “Disney Adult.” He is not cowed by the opposition.

“I’m going to live my best life because at the end of the day what would make them happy is for me to stop doing that,” he says. “And I’m never going to give that satisfaction to anyone.”

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Trump swoops into Paris as Europe prepares for a more transactional relationship

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Trump swoops into Paris as Europe prepares for a more transactional relationship

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Donald Trump met Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on Saturday for the first time since the US leader’s re-election, in a diplomatic coup for French President Emmanuel Macron.

The trip to France marks Trump’s return to the world stage for the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral, as Europe braces for the incoming US administration to take a harder, more transactional approach to the transatlantic relationship.

The event, which has attracted some 50 world leaders, comes at a decisive moment for Europe as Trump warns of punitive tariffs and pushes to end the war between Ukraine and Russia quickly. 

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Macron sought to discuss pressing issues during the two-day event, meeting with Trump on Saturday afternoon at the Elysée palace before holding talks with Zelenskyy. The three leaders then held a meeting before the reopening service at the cathedral.

“United States, Ukraine, and France. Together on this historic day. Gathered for Notre-Dame. Let us continue our joint efforts for peace and security,” Macron wrote on X above a photo of the three leaders at the Elysée.

Zelenskyy said the trilateral meeting was “good and productive”.

“President Trump is, as always, resolute,” he wrote on X.

“We all want this war to end as soon as possible and in a just way. We spoke about our people, the situation on the ground, and a just peace,” he added.

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The Ukrainian leader was applauded by the crowds as he entered Notre-Dame on Saturday night.

With Ukraine heavily dependant on US weapons to fight Russia, Zelenskyy has been lobbying Trump not to abandon their cause or force them to accept unfavourable peace conditions. 

Facilitating the informal meeting is a diplomatic win for Macron, who has been on the retreat domestically since losing legislative elections over the summer and having his handpicked prime minister toppled this week.

“This will be a high-level diplomatic moment to establish connections and also for leaders to try to glean hints of what Trump will do when he takes office,” said Patrick Martin-Genier, an international relations professor at Sciences Po.

European leaders, many of whom feared the return of Trump, have now begun to court him.  

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“It seems like the world is going a little crazy right now and we will be talking about that,” Trump said ahead of his one-on-one with Macron. “We had a great relationship as everyone knows. We accomplished a lot.”

The reopening of Notre-Dame is a triumph for Macron, who championed the cause of repairing within five years the cathedral that was nearly destroyed in a fire in 2019. 

Macron hopes to draw on his experience as one of the few European leaders in office during the first Trump term to deal with the unpredictable president-elect.

During Trump’s first term, Macron used flattery and pomp to curry favour with the US president and invited him to the Bastille Day military parade, sparking a shortlived friendship that broke down over American tariffs on French goods such as cognac.

Trump’s entourage on Saturday included multi-billionaire Elon Musk, Steve Witkoff, a special envoy who recently held talks with Israel and Qatar over a ceasefire in Gaza, and Massad Boulos, an adviser responsible for maintaining the US and French brokered ceasefire in Lebanon. He is also the father in law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany.

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Trump last week named another family connection to serve as US ambassador to France: Charles Kushner, a real estate developer who is the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

About 3,000 visitors, including the Prince of Wales and the presidents of Germany and Italy, will be among the first to witness the new bright interiors that have erased any trace of the blaze.

The billionaire donors who contributed more than half of the €800mn restoration budget were also in attendance, such as Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury giant LVMH, and François-Henri Pinault, who runs Gucci-owner Kering.

The gothic masterpiece of Notre-Dame will officially be reopened as a place of worship when the Archbishop of Paris strikes its towering wooden doors and enters in a procession towards the altar.

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