French PM Bayrou survives first no-confidence vote in parliament
French Prime Minister François Bayrou survived his first major test in the National Assembly on Thursday after Socialist lawmakers and the far-right National Rally chose not to support a no-confidence motion put forward by hard-left party La France insoumise (France Unbowed).
French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Thursday survived his first vote of no confidence in parliament after the motion, brought by the leftist opposition, failed to gain traction on the far right.
The challenge in the National Assembly came after Bayrou's statement this week on his government policy agenda, in which he opened the door to fresh talks on a 2023 pension reform "without taboo" but also said that France's "excessive" deficits needed to be cut in this year's budget.
The speech sparked condemnation from most of the opposition in parliament where Bayrou – in the job only since last month – is well short of an absolute majority, making his government highly vulnerable to any no-confidence vote that, if successful, would force it to resign.
Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), dismissed it as "idle talk" by "a man of spineless continuity".
But the backers of the no-confidence motion, submitted by the hard-left LFI party, failed to win the RN's backing.
"We don't think a no-confidence vote should be a gadget to create a buzz," RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy said ahead of the vote.
(AFP)
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