French opposition parties have said they will not back Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou after he called a vote of confidence on 8 September on plans for deep budget cuts.<\/p>\n
Bayrou, who has led a minority government since last December, called the vote on Monday, warning France was facing a \u201cworrying and therefore decisive moment\u201d. \u201cYes, it\u2019s risky, but it\u2019s even riskier not to do anything\u201d, he said, in the face of France\u2019s mounting budget deficit.<\/p>\n
From the National Rally on the right to the Socialists, Greens and France Unbowed on the left, opposition parties lined up to say they would vote against him.<\/p>\n
Bayrou called the vote two days before protests have been called across France to \u201cblock everything\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Bloquons tout <\/em>movement,<\/em> which began on social media but has since been backed by the unions and far left, emerged after Bayrou announced plans in July for almost \u20ac44bn (\u00a338bn) in budget cuts.<\/p>\n Reacting to news of the vote, France\u2019s CAC-40 share index fell 1.59% on Monday and then a further 2% on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n Finance Minister Eric Lombard said on Tuesday that \u201ccollectively we have to find a way to prepare a budget for recovery for 2026\u201d.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s budget deficit hit 5.8% of France\u2019s economic output (GDP) and Bayrou said France was in danger and parliament would be asked \u201cto choose the path that allows us to escape from this curse [of indebtedness]\u201d.<\/p>\n Bayrou was appointed prime minister by President Emmanuel Macron, after Michel Barnier\u2019s government collapsed in a confidence vote on spending cuts last December.<\/p>\n The outlook for Bayrou and his fragile government looks bleak, because they do not have sufficient support in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n The leaders of the far-right National Rally party made clear immediately they would not vote for him. Its president, Jordan Bardella, said Bayrou had declared \u201cthe end of his government\u201d and leader Marine Le Pen said only dissolving parliament would let France choose its destiny.<\/p>\n The Communists, Ecologists and radical-left France Unbowed all said they would vote against the government and then Socialist leader Olivier Faure appeared to seal Bayrou\u2019s fate when he told Le Monde newspaper that \u201cit\u2019s unthinkable the Socialists will give Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou a vote of confidence\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not looking for chaos with the aim of speeding up the electoral calendar,\u201d said Faure. \u201cIt is Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou who is to blame for political instability by proposing a budget that no-one supports, not even his electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n Unless Bayrou can change their minds, his chances of survival are low. The finance minister said there was room for negotiation but he was very firm on cutting the budget by \u20ac44bn.<\/p>\n Bayrou\u2019s budget plans also include cutting two of France\u2019s national holidays, so there may be some scope for the government to move on that.<\/p>\n Ministerial colleagues, who were given little notice on Monday of Bayrou\u2019s decision to call a vote of confidence on 8 September, praised his move.<\/p>\n Justice Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin told French TV on Tuesday that the prime minister\u2019s move was \u201cextremely courageous.. and very democratic\u201d.<\/p>\n If the government does collapse, President Macron faces the choice of either leaving Bayrou in place as head of a caretaker government, naming another prime minister or calling new elections.<\/p>\n Bayrou made his announcement after visiting the president during his holiday at Fort Br\u00e9gan\u00e7on in the south of France, so Macron was fully briefed on the prime minister\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n Macron himself has refused to resign, and his term is due to continue until 2027, however it was his decision to call snap elections in 2024 that left France with a minority government made up of centrists and right-wing Republicans.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" French opposition parties have said they will not back Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou after he called a vote of confidence on 8 September on plans for deep budget cuts. Bayrou, who has led a minority government since last December, called the vote on Monday, warning France was facing a \u201cworrying and therefore decisive moment\u201d. \u201cYes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}