New French PM survives first no-confidence vote in parliament
New French prime minister Francois Bayrou on survived his first vote of no confidence in the national assembly on January 16th after the motion, brought by the left-wing opposition, failed to gain traction with the far right, reported RFI.
The challenge came after Bayrou’s statement on his policy agenda where he opened the door to fresh talks on a 2023 pension reform “without taboo” but added that France’s “excessive” deficits needed to be cut in this year’s budget.
The speech sparked condemnation from much of the parliamentary opposition where Bayrou, who only took the job last month, is far short of an absolute majority, leaving his government highly vulnerable to any no-confidence vote that, if successful, would force it to quit.
Far-right National Rally (RN) leader Jordan Bardella dismissed it as “idle talk” by “a man of spineless continuity” but the backers of the no-confidence motion, submitted by the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, failed to win the RN’s support.
“We don’t think a no-confidence vote should be a gadget to create a buzz,” RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy stated before the vote. RN vice-president Sebastien Chenu added also before the vote that his party would judge the government “not by its words, but by its actions”.
Tanguy did warn that the RN may still come for Bayrou over his budget for this year, which is overdue following the toppling of the previous government of Michel Barnier over its austerity plans. Tanguy added that the new budget announcement would be a “moment of truth”.
“Mr prime minister, the days of your government of unhappiness are numbered,” said LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard as the debate on the motion of no-confidence started.
“And when it falls, the monarch will follow,” he said, referencing president Macron who only last month appointed Bayrou as France’s fourth prime minister within a year.
Bayrou accused the far left of trying to take the country down the path of “infighting,” and welcomed the decision of the Socialists to deny the LFI motion their support, despite having been in a alliance with the LFI since the general election last summer.
The Socialists’ refusal to support the motion showed that “another path towards understanding is opening up”, Bayrou stated.
LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon vented on the evening of January 16th that Bayrou “has just scored a point” thanks to “those who are running the Socialists today and have weakened us,” but denied that the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance had cracked despite failure to win Socialist support over the motion.
The Ecologists and Communists, both part of the NFP alliance, made clear that they want to continue discussions with the government despite voting in favour of the motion.
RFI
