Macron refuses to resign after collapse of French government

French President Emmanuel Macron is refusing to resign. 

Breitbart News reports that Macron rejected the calls for his resignation in a speech that he gave on Thursday evening.

This all comes following the historic collapse of the French government, in the preceding days.

Breitbart accuses Macron, in his speech, of attempting to "pass the buck."

Background

USA Today reports that the French government collapsed on Wednesday, following the ouster of the country's prime minister, Michel Barnier.

Per the outlet:

France's government collapsed Wednesday after Prime Minister Michel Barnier was forced out in a no-confidence vote in Parliament, reigniting a summertime political crisis for the country as it prepares to face a new year. Barnier is now expected to resign after 331 out of 577 lawmakers in France's National Assembly voted against him.

Barnier did, in fact, resign.

As for why this is all happening now, USA Today explains:

Both left and right were angry at Barnier's proposals for tax increases and spending cuts to reduce France's deficit. He used special powers to force through a welfare-related budget bill not voted on by lawmakers.

Now, many are calling on Macron to follow Barnier's lead by resigning. Macron, however, is resisting.

Not my fault

In his speech on Thursday evening, Macron declared that he will "never take responsibility" for the actions of others.

He said:

The extreme right and the extreme left have united, in an anti-republican front, and because forces which until yesterday governed France have chosen to ally themselves. I would never take responsibility for others.

Breitbart explains that, in Macron's eyes:

an “anti-republican” alliance [has been formed] between the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition and Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally (RN) after they joined together to censure the government of Michel Barnier over an attempt to pass effective cuts to social security payments to seniors without a vote in the National Assembly.

The outlet goes on to report that, after Macron was done playing the blame game, he went on to try to claim that France, in point of fact, is actually not as bad off as some are trying to claim. He tried to use the recent reopening of the Cathedral of Notre Dame as an example of France's success under his leadership.

It is unclear, at the time of this writing, whether Macron's speech was enough to hold off the forces that are calling for his resignation. More likely than not, the answer is going to be that it was not.