French Government to Seek Budget Adoption Monday, Premier Says

(Bloomberg) -- The French government will seek to push through the 2025 budget on Monday, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, exposing it to potential no-confidence votes in a fragmented Parliament.

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The budget will be adopted in the lower house without a vote thanks to a constitutional provision, Bayrou said. The social-security budget would be adopted in the same manner a few days later, the prime minister said.

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“A country like ours can’t remain without a budget,” Bayrou said in the interview published Sunday. “If everything goes well, in 10 days, France will have the budgets that are crucial for the life of the nation.”

Members of far-left parties have already said they will seek to kill the proposed budgets by calling for a no-confidence vote. That would leave the fate of Bayrou’s government in the hands of opposition lawmakers from the Socialist Party and the far-right National Rally, who have yet to say whether concessions made by the premier during the budget discussions have been sufficient.

A deal reached by a small group of lawmakers Friday brought France closer to resolving a crisis over its public finances that toppled Michel Barnier’s government in December and left the country relying on stopgap legislation to avoid a shutdown. The uncertainty combined with gaping budget deficits has sparked market selloffs, driving up France’s borrowing costs compared with peers.

Despite the concessions, which may be worth about €5 billion ($5.2 billion), France’s 2025 public deficit will represent 5.4% of its gross domestic product, as promised, Bayrou told La Tribune Dimanche.

In a wide-ranging interview, Bayrou also said the European Central Bank should be cutting interest rates. “Otherwise, we won’t be on the same footing against Chinese and US competition,” he said. The ECB has made five cuts to 2.75% since June amid stalling growth in the region.

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