France’s hard-right and hard-left parties on Thursday rejected a compromise with Prime Minister Francois Bayrou over his government’s cost-cutting budget, saying it was “too late” to make a deal.
Bayrou has staked his political survival on a confidence vote he called for September 8, after months of deadlock over the government’s plans to slash the country’s mounting public debt.
But with the hard-right and left-wing parties pledging not to back him, his premiership appears doomed, only months after he took office in December.
“Too late. Mr prime minister, you have missed many opportunities to construct a budget that benefits the French people,” the hard-right National Rally’s (RN) deputy leader Sebastien Chenu told TF1 television.
“The page has been turned. Dialogue is in the past.”
Bayrou’s surprise gamble has raised fears that France risks a new period of prolonged political and financial instability.
President Emmanuel Macron has given his “full support” to 74-year-old Bayrou, who has said he would fight to remain in power and plans to host party leaders for talks from Monday.
He said he was ready to start negotiations on the condition that parties commit to savings measures to reduce France’s debt pile.
RN leader Jordan Bardella said on X that while party leaders will attend talks with Bayrou next week, he added that any such dialogue would be “futile and extremely late”.
On Wednesday evening Bardella reiterated his party’s call for Macron to dissolve parliament or resign, arguing it was “the only solution to break the political deadlock”.
The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party also said it would snub next week’s negotiations.
“France Unbowed has already tabled eight motions of no confidence against the government this year,” LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard said on X.
“We therefore have no intention of participating in the rescue operation that the prime minister is now attempting to initiate.”
The Greens are also expected to boycott the talks.
Its leader, Marine Tondelier, said she does not see the point of negotiating with a prime minister “who is only there for a few more days”.
Should Bayrou lose the vote, he must resign along with his entire government.
Macron could then reappoint him, choose a new figure to become the president’s seventh prime minister since he took office in 2017, or call early elections to break the political deadlock that has now dogged France for more than a year.
But Bayrou warned that snap elections would not help restore stability after the last vote in summer 2024 left the RN as the largest single party in parliament.
Bayrou acknowledged that he was himself not optimistic about winning the vote.
But he emphasised the importance of helping France’s young people by reducing the country’s debt pile, which he said had built up over the years “for the sake of the comfort of the boomers” of the post-war generation.
Although the government insists that France’s economy is resilient, the Paris stock exchange slumped after Bayrou’s announcement that he would seek the vote of confidence.
Speaking to a business lobby group during a meeting at the Roland-Garros stadium complex on Thursday, Economy Minister Eric Lombard downplayed France’s woes.
“I do not believe in a financial crisis,” he said. “I’m going to surprise you, but I am convinced that we will have a budget for 2026, and on time.”
“We have no difficulty in financing our economy,” he said, adding the public deficit would be reduced to 5.4 per cent of gross domestic product by the end of the year.
After years of overspending, France is on notice to control its public deficit and cut its sprawling debt, as required under EU rules.
Many in France have been unhappy with the current political impasse, as well as with other problems including the rising cost of living and crime.
A broad anti-government campaign dubbed “Bloquons tout” (“Let’s block everything”), backed by the left, has urged the French to stage a nationwide shutdown on September 10.
French trust in President Macron and PM Bayrou hits rock bottom, survey shows pic.twitter.com/K6Ji4Sty13
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 12, 2025
