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François Bayrou remains French Prime Minister after surviving a no-confidence vote, ensuring the adoption of the contentious 2025 budget plan.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou survived his third no-confidence vote in less than one month this Wednesday. The vote came after the recently appointed head of government used a controversial constitutional tool known as Article 49.3 to push through the country’s long-overdue 2025 budget plan through parliament without a vote from the MPs on Monday. In turn, this opened his government to the risk of a no-confidence motion 48 hours later, which was backed by the hard-left France Unbowed Party (LFI), the Greens, and the Communists (all part of the left-wing coalition NFP). Surviving the vote means the budget plan is automatically adopted. The contentious bill aimed to cut an eye-watering €30bn and raise taxes by €20bn to limit France’s deficit to 5.4% of GDP this year.A total of 288 votes were needed to successfully topple Bayrou’s government and strike down the budget. On Wednesday night, 128 votes were counted. The Socialists (also part of the left-wing coalition) and the far-right decided not to support the motion this time. A second confidence vote tabled by LFI, this time on the Social Security budget bill, was debated later on Wednesday night but once again did not achieve the amount of votes necessary. The move has created a major rift within the NFP with the France Unbowed party accusing the Socialists of betraying the left. The centre left party claims to oppose Bayrou’s bill but has refused to vote against his government to allow France to have a budget. “I think it’s irresponsible. I think it’s uncharacteristic of a left-wing coalition. I will remind you that it’s the Socialist MPs who are isolating themselves from the rest of us with their choice,” said Sarah Legrain, a France Unbowed MP, in an interview with Euronews. “We have our own autonomy and we don’t depend on anyone… it’s as simple as that,” hit back Olivier Faure, the leader of the Socialists. However, to demonstrate its opposition to the government, the centre-left party plans to table a spontaneous confidence motion after the budget vote.”Even if I consider this budget to be a bad one, I hope that the public sector, businesses and local authorities can continue to funcition, especially those who need public funding… We can’t have a country which, for the next few months months is in a state of crisis,” Olivier Faure told Euronews. Michel Barnier, Bayrou’s predecessor, was ousted last December after the entire left-wing coalition and the far right joined forces. But although this gives Bayrou’s minority government some breathing room, the coming months will likely be turbulent. France has been in a state of political paralysis after French President Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the lower house of parliament following his party’s loss in the European elections in June 2024. The early legislative vote held in the summer ended with a hung parliament divided into three blocs with no absolute majority. Constitutionally, Macron cannot call for early elections before the coming summer.
