French Prime Minister François Bayrou successfully passed the first major test of his minority government on Thursday by surviving a no-confidence vote called by the hard-left opposition. The motion was not supported by the center-left Socialist Party, which had been expected to play a decisive role in the vote. The far-right National Rally (RN) party, led by Marine Le Pen, had already indicated that it would not back the motion, thus ensuring Bayrou’s victory.
Irrespective of the eventuality, Bayrou’s administration is in an extremely vulnerable situation. Without the Socialist support, his administration must depend even on the extreme right-wing RN to get things legislated. His team is left with a formidable task now. The budget of 2025 for instance, remains a sensitive matter that led to the ousting of Michel Barnier as his predecessor.
The vote of no confidence received 131 approvals on Thursday; however, the motion is way short from garnering 288 votes, which is what would have approved it. Yael Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, acknowledged the failure by saying, “The required majority has not been reached, the motion is not adopted.”.
To win Socialist endorsement, Bayrou offered a chain of concessions among which were relaunching debates on pension reform as well as promised more money in hospitals and on education. Besides, he announced that he maintained all the past concessions made by Barnier, for instance, reversing a planned raise in electricity taxes and pensions indexation.
Despite these efforts, Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure said Bayrou’s concessions would not be sufficient and that some other demands lack clarity. Under these circumstances in France, further political instability for the government calls for the competence of its own economic agenda survival.
