French PM survives first no-confidence vote in parliament
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Thursday survived his first vote of no confidence in parliament after the motion, brought by the leftist opposition, failed to gain traction with 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 France Unbowed (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.
The RN's vice-president, Sebastien Chenu, added before the vote that his party would judge the government "not by its words, but by its actions".
The new government's budget announcement would be a "moment of truth", Tanguy said.
Read more on RFI English
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