French government faces collapse in no-confidence vote – POLITICO

PARIS — French Prime Minister Michel Barnier opened the door for opposition parties to attempt to topple his government — probably on Wednesday — by announcing he will not submit his social security budget to a vote.

Barnier and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally have been engaged in an increasingly high-stakes battle over the issue, which could see the prime minister fall as early as the end of this week. 

France is now braced for a reaction from financial markets, which can often force governments' hands.  As the crisis intensified last week, investors briefly declared France a worse credit risk than Greece, whose debt almost brought the eurozone to its knees just over a decade ago. France is the currency bloc's second largest economy and the chaos is likely to send shock waves well beyond its borders.