Macron wraps up Saudi visit as government faces no-confidence vote
President Emmanuel Macron completed his state visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as France's government faced being ousted in a no-confidence vote.
Macron flew out after viewing the ancient AlUla heritage site, a cornerstone of the conservative country's nascent tourism industry, at the end of his three-day tour.
The first French state visit to Saudi Arabia since 2006 came against the backdrop of a major political crisis that threatens to force out the minority government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
An evening no-confidence vote, after Barnier forced through a social security financing bill using executive powers, could topple a French government for the first time in more than 60 years.
The turmoil follows a snap parliamentary election called by Macron in the summer that left the far-right National Rally as the largest single party in the National Assembly but with no faction holding a majority.
Speaking to travelling reporters on Tuesday, Macron rejected calls to resign to break the deadlock, saying such a move was "political fiction" and "doesn't make any sense".
The French president kept the focus largely on diplomatic and business ties during his visit to Saudi Arabia, which is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on revamping its oil-reliant economy.
On Tuesday, he announced that France and Saudi Arabia would co-chair an international conference in New York next June on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
A number of deals were signed by the 50-strong business delegation that accompanied him, including by EDF to build solar power plants and Veolia and Suez for waste treatment.
The two countries also have the "will to move forward" on a deal to sell French-made Rafale fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, Macron said on Tuesday.
In 2021, Macron became one of the first Western leaders to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler, in Saudi Arabia after the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul.
Prince Mohammed, who reportedly paid $300 million in 2015 for the Chateau Louis XIV west of Paris -- then described as the world's most expensive home -- has made three official visits to France.
