French Prime Minister Francois Bayreu faced his first no-confidence vote in parliament on Thursday, with the motion unlikely to pass.
The challenge in the National Assembly follows Bayeru’s statement this week on his government policy agenda, in which he opened the door to “no-holds barred” new negotiations on a 2023 pension reform, but also said cutting France’s “excessive” deficit Need this year’s budget.
The speech was condemned by much of the opposition in parliament, where Bayeru does not have an absolute majority, leaving his government highly vulnerable to a vote of no confidence, which if successful would force him to resign.
Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), dismissed it as “idle talk” from a “spineless consistency man”.
But a no-confidence motion submitted by the hard-left LFI party will still not get RN’s support, party members have said.
“We don’t think a no-confidence vote should be a tool to get discussion,” said RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy. RN vice-president Sébastien Chenu said his party would evaluate the government “not on this basis”. Not with words, but with your actions”.
However, Tanguy warned that the RN could still come after Bayeru over the 2025 budget, which is overdue after being dropped by Michel Barnier’s previous government because of its austerity plans. The new government’s budget announcement will be “the moment of truth,” Tanguy said.
In the absence of far-right support, the no-confidence motion could not garner the 288 votes needed to topple Bayeru, even if liberal-left socialists joined the LFI initiative, which was uncertain even hours before the vote.
The motion is to be debated from 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) and a vote is expected by the evening.
French politics was plunged into chaos last year when President Emmanuel Macron called an election to break the political deadlock, but the vote returned a disappointingly divided lower house.
Macron acknowledged that his decision to dissolve the National Assembly had created “division” and “instability.”
Constitutional rules mean new legislative elections cannot be called until July.
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