While France is going through a period of instability not seen in decades, the general policy declaration of the new Prime Minister François Bayrou, this afternoon before the National Assembly, is particularly scrutinized. Appointed in December, the head of government – the fourth in a year in France – has the first challenge of avoiding censorship from the left while retaining his right-wing allies.
During this exercise, the head of government first indicated the opportunity offered, according to him, by the period of instability that France is going through: “at the risk of surprising you, I believe that this situation is an asset. Because when everything is going well, we fall asleep on our laurels. And when everything seems to be going wrong, we are forced to have courage,” said the Prime Minister, emphasizing “the need, the requirement, the injunction that the country assigns to us (to) find stability.” “All French people need it. They understand well that we do not agree on everything, but they urge us, I believe, to join forces to force a solution.”
Budget and pensions in focus
The first theme raised during his general policy speech, the country’s over-indebtedness is worrying according to the Prime Minister, who sees it as “a sword of Damocles over our country and our social model.” “Since the war, France, in its history, has never been as indebted as it is today. No policy of recovery and refoundation can be carried out if it does not take into account this situation of over-indebtedness and if it does not set itself the objective of containing it and reducing it,” declared François Bayrou, aiming for a public deficit at 5.4% of GDP in 2025. “All government parties, without exception, have a responsibility for the situation created in recent decades,” assured the Prime Minister.
The fate that he intends to reserve for the controversial pension reform, which came into force in September 2023, is also at the heart of the observations, being one of the central points of the compromise that he must find between the different political parties to avoid censorship of deputies. François Bayrou negotiated for several weeks with the left. The Prime Minister explained in this regard that he intended neither to repeal nor suspend this reform, but to launch a renegotiation for approximately three months. To have “indisputable figures”, he will request a “flash mission” of “a few weeks” from the Court of Auditors. At the end, the social partners, whom he will bring together “from Friday” within a “permanent delegation”, will attempt to revise the reform.
“If during this conclave, this delegation finds an agreement of balance and better justice, we will adopt it. Parliament will be seized of it during the next social security financing bill in the fall “or before, and if necessary by a law,” promised the centrist leader. Otherwise, it is “the current reform which would continue to apply”. But the equation remains delicate, because the National Assembly is fractured into three blocs (left, center right with the right and extreme right), none of which has an absolute majority.
While his predecessor Michel Barnier had tried in vain to obtain a commitment of “non-censorship” from the far right, François Bayrou is this time banking on the left and particularly the socialists to find a way through.
Development follows.
