The unpopular French government is ready to make concessions on next year's budget, Finance Minister Antoine Armand said on Thursday, amid growing fears that opposition to the bill could bring down the administration of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
Mr. Armand's comments highlight the losing position the government finds itself in.
Widespread opposition from the left and far right to the budget could lead to the government's imminent downfall if it loses the motion of no confidence, while measures to reduce the 60 billion euros in savings that it implies will further frighten investors concerned about France's spiraling deficit.
French stocks and bonds fell sharply on Wednesday, but were more stable on Thursday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
Speaking on BFM TV, Mr Armand echoed Mr Barnier's comments that failure to pass the budget could cause a storm in financial markets, but he also struck a conciliatory tone.
“We are ready to make measured concessions in all areas,” he said, without giving further details.
Mr. Barnier's government could fall before Christmas, or even as early as next week, if his far-right and far-left adversaries impose a vote of no confidence on him which he would be likely to lose, according to some sources.
Public opinion is divided over Mr. Barnier's future.
Some 53% of French people want the fall of the Barnier government, according to an Ifop-Fiducial poll for Sud Radio published Thursday. However, an Elabe poll for BFM TV found on Wednesday that more than half of those surveyed thought a vote of no confidence aimed at ousting the government should be avoided.
Much remains up in the air, with Mr Barnier's team meeting with Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), which supports his administration, and other parties for talks aimed at averting a second political crisis French major in six months.
The finance bill was rejected by the deeply divided lower house and is currently the subject of debate in the Senate.
Mr Barnier said he would likely use Article 49.3 of the Constitution to push the bill through Parliament, an aggressive move that would invariably trigger a motion of no confidence.
Ms Le Pen and the RN defended their right to vote to overthrow the government, while the left bloc has also signaled its intention to overthrow Mr Barnier's administration.
In a radio interview on Thursday, former President François Hollande, now a Socialist Party MP, said he would vote to overthrow the government if Mr Barnier used Article 49.3.
DIVERGING POINTS OF VIEW
Against this turbulent political backdrop, lower house lawmakers on Thursday began examining a proposal from the hard-left La France insoumise party to scrap President Emmanuel Macron's deeply unpopular 2023 pension reform, which raised the age limit retirement from 62 to 64 years old.
The proposal could be adopted by the lower house thanks to the support of certain far-right RN deputies, but it is unlikely that it will progress in the Senate, where Mr. Barnier's conservatives dominate.
Still, a victory in the lower house would add unwanted pressure on Mr Barnier's government at a critical time. To prevent its passage by the lower house, lawmakers from Macron's camp and conservatives added hundreds of amendments to the bill, hoping to delay the vote until midnight, when it would be too late to move forward.
Mr. Macron invoked Article 49.3 to push through pension reform, a move that exhausted what little political capital he had after his re-election in 2022. The resulting anti-Macron mood drove his party to suffer heavy losses after he called early elections in June, which resulted in an unstable parliament without a majority.
