Paris: French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou announced on Monday that he has requested a Confidence Vote in the National Assembly for September 8 over his 44-billion-euro (51 billion US dollars) budget cut plan.
Speaking at a press conference, Bayrou warned that France was on the verge of over-indebtedness, Xinhua News Agency reported.
“An immediate danger weighs upon us, which we must face, not tomorrow, but today, without delay of any kind; otherwise the future will be closed to us,” he said.
According to Bayrou, who heads a minority government, by seeking the Assembly’s confidence, deputies would grasp “the seriousness of the situation.”
The outcome of the vote would determine whether Bayrou’s minority government could stay in power.
Soon after Bayrou’s announcement, both France’s hard-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) and far-right party National Rally (RN) said they would not vote in favor of the government.
Other parties, including the Socialist Party (PS) and the Green Party, also said they would not support Bayrou’s government.
In July, Bayrou revealed his budget draft for 2026 and sought to save 44 billion Euros per year in government spending.
Earlier in February, French PM Francois Bayrou survived his sixth no-confidence vote since taking office on December 13 last year.
The no-confidence vote, initiated by the Socialist Party (PS), received only 181 votes in the French National Assembly, far below the 289 needed to unseat Bayrou, according to the results announced by the Speaker’s representative on Wednesday night.
The PS launched the no-confidence vote on Monday in protest against Bayrou’s use of the term “migratory submersion”. The left-wing party accused him of accelerating France’s “political and moral decline”.
The far-right party National Rally (RN) had previously announced that it would not support the no-confidence vote.
Earlier, the hard-left party La France Insoumise (LFI) said that it would vote in favour, despite acknowledging that the Socialists didn’t support LFI’s no-confidence votes against Bayrou.
Bayrou was appointed Prime Minister by French President Emmanuel Macron on December 13 after his predecessor Michel Barnier was ousted in a no-confidence vote.
Bayrou has survived the last in a series of four no-confidence motions levelled against his government over a period of mere days.
(IANS)
