Paris:
The French prime minister, Francois Bayrou, survived on Wednesday a vote without confidence in Parliament, winning a breath space after less than two months in office, but still faces an uncertain future.
Bayrou, a centrist veteran appointed by President Emmanuel Macron in December to end months of political crisis, on Monday, used a controversial constitutional article to collect his cost reduction budget through Parliament without vote.
“This budget is an urgent step,” Bayrou told the National Assembly.
But the use of this mechanism, article 49.3 of the Constitution, allows opposition parties to present a motion of non -trust, and the commitment to tear down the government was duly proposed by the lower part of the hard left (LFI), backed by communists and green.
But while Bayrou is not close to having a majority in the National Assembly, the Socialists and the National Right Rally (RN) said they would not support two non -confidence movements presented by the hard left.
In the end, the motion regarding the budget gathered 128 votes, well below the 289 votes necessary to overthrow the government, which still needs the approval of the Senate of the upper part so that the draft becomes law.
A second motion of non -trust, aimed at the Government Social Security Financing Plan, was also on Wednesday’s agenda and also expected it to fail.
But the observers said that Wednesday’s vote, while a victory, said little more than a postponement for the prime minister.
“The passive support of both the Socialists and the extreme right of Marine Le Pen for Bayrou will end once a 2025 budget is enacted in the coming days,” said Risk Analysis Firm Eurasia Group, giving 70 percent of possibilities that the government “falls in the coming months.”
‘Activate the new elections’
Jordan Bardella, head of the RN of the extreme right, said before the vote that “we need to avoid uncertainty because many of our fellow citizens … are extremely concerned about the possible long -term instability.”
The Vice President of the party, Sebastien Chenu, said Wednesday that the RN wanted stability “until it is possible to activate new elections”, which could be in June, a year after the last legislative surveys.
“As soon as we can go before voters, we must do it,” he said.
The socialist leader Olivier Foure said that his party decided not to vote to overthrow the government for the budget, since it would only have been in France to have “a prime minister more to the right.”
The position of the Socialists is a great impulse for Bayrou that could mark the end of a wide leftist alliance, including the Socialists and the LFI party that had suffered since the electoral campaign.
But in a symbolic movement, the leadership of the party decided on Monday to propose a separate motion of non -trust after Bayrou referred to the “floods” migrants of France, using the terminology previously used by the extreme right.
However, this has few possibilities to pass, since it is expected to be rejected by the parts of the right.
The predecessor of Bayrou, Michel Barnier, was shot down in a vote without confidence at the end of last year, leaving France in unknown political waters.
The survival of the Bayroun government will be a relief for Macron, who has faced calls to resign since the Parliament dissolved last year, but has insisted that he will remain until the end of his mandate in 2027.
Many analysts and even allies are still bewildered by the president’s decision to call SNAP’s parliamentary elections last summer, which gave the right his greatest support point in a divided Parliament.
The cost reduction and tax gravation budget has proven to be controversial in some sectors, with the richest man in France, the magnate of luxury goods Bernard Arnault, denouncing a planned special corporate tax.
The Minister of Budget, Amelie de Montchalin, said that the government, now in possession of a budget, would do what is needed “to meet our 5.4 percent objective” for the 2025 deficit as a percentage of GDP, after An estimated six percent last year.
The turbulent months continue in French politics.
A verdict is due in the trial of the extreme right -wing leader Marine Le Pen about the accusations of false works of the EU Parliament, charges he denies, on March 31, and if he is convicted, he could be disqualified from the 2027 elections.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from a union feed).
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