PARIS: France’s far-right and hard-left parties on Thursday rejected a compromise with Prime Minister Francois Bayrou over his government’s cost-cutting budget, saying it was “too late” to make a deal.
Bayrou has staked his political survival on a confidence vote he called for Sept 8, after months of deadlock over the government’s plans to slash the country’s mounting public debt.
But with the far-right and left-wing parties pledging not to back him, his premiership appears doomed, only months after he took office in December.
“Too late. Mr prime minister, you have missed many opportunities to construct a budget that benefits the French people,” the far-right National Rally’s (RN) deputy leader Sebastien Chenu told a television channel.
“The page has been turned. Dialogue is in the past.” Bayrou’s surprise gamble has raised fears that France risks a new period of prolonged political instability.
President Emmanuel Macron has given his “full support” to 74-year-old Bayrou, who has said he would fight to remain in power and plans to host party leaders for talks from Monday.
He said he was ready to start negotiations on the condition that parties commit to savings measures to reduce France’s debt pile.
Jordan Bardella, the RN chief, said on X that while party leaders will attend talks with Bayrou next week, he added that any such dialogue would be “futile and extremely late”.
On Wednesday evening Bardella reiterated his party’s call for Macron to dissolve parliament or resign, arguing it was “the only solution to break the political deadlock”.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2025