Macron, EU chief Von der Leyen meet in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Paris on Friday ahead of a European summit in Brussels next week.

Macron greeted von der Leyen on the steps of the Élysée Palace, before waving for photographers and entering together for talks.

The meeting comes as France’s latest political crisis eased — for now — when Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu survived two consecutive no-confidence votes on Thursday, averting another government collapse and giving President Emmanuel Macron a respite before an even tougher fight over the national budget.

The immediate danger may have receded but the core problem is still very much center stage. The eurozone’s second-largest economy is still run by a minority government in a splintered parliament where no single bloc or party has a majority.

Every major law now turns on last-minute deals, and the next test is a spending plan that must pass before the end of the year.

On Thursday, lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly rejected a no-confidence motion filed by the hard-left France Unbowed party. The 271 votes were 18 short of the 289 needed to bring down the government.

A second motion from the far-right National Rally also failed.

Had Lecornu lost, Macron would have faced only unpalatable options: call new legislative elections, try to find yet another prime minister — France’s fifth in barely a year — or perhaps even resign himself, which he has ruled out.

Von der Leyen survived two no-confidence votes of her own last week, as an overwhelming number of EU lawmakers rejected censure motions against her.

It came after the nationalist Patriots for Europe political group insisted that migration had “exploded” under von der Leyen’s leadership and threatened “our identity and security.” Its members said she abandoned farmers and consumers, jeopardizing food safety with pro-environment policies.

Von der Leyen has now survived three no confidence votes in a year since beginning her second 5-year term at the helm of the EU’s powerful executive branch. She is the first commission chief to face any such votes in more than a decade.