French Prime Minister François Bayrou said the destiny of France was at stake in a forthcoming confidence vote, which he called to resolve a budget standoff but which he is expected to lose.
Bayrou sat down for an interview with four news channels on August 31 as the clock ticks down to the September 8 vote in parliament. Opposition parties have already said they will not back his austerity budget.
The vote in parliament will not decide “the fate of the Prime Minister” but “the fate of France”, Bayrou said.
He stunned France August 25 by saying he would request the vote in a divided parliament, as he tries to garner enough support for his minority government’s plan to slash spending.
“The days ahead are crucial,” the PM said in the interview with franceinfo, LCI, BFMTV and Cnews.
He indicated that he was not ready to say “goodbye”, as the opposition urged.
“If you think that I can give up the battles that I fight, that I am fighting here, that I have been fighting for years and that I will continue to fight in the future, you are mistaken.”
Bayrou accused some political forces in France of wanting to sow “chaos”, targeting in particular left-wing firebrand, the de facto leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
From September 1, Bayrou said he hoped to hold negotiations with the opposition parties provided they commit to savings measures to reduce France’s debt. Members of the opposition, though, said it was too late.
Earlier on August 31, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said its decision to vote against Bayrou’s government was final.
“The only thing I’m waiting for him to do now is to say goodbye,” said Faure, referring to the Prime Minister.
Bayrou dismissed the Socialist Party’s budget proposals.
“What the Socialist Party is proposing is not to curb spending but to let spending take off again,” he said.
Bayrou has said sacrifices must be made to ensure France’s future.
He has said he wanted to save about €44 billion but his plan, which includes reducing the number of holidays and placing a freeze on spending increases, has proved unpopular.
Seven out of 10 French people said they want Bayrou to lose the confidence vote, according to a recent poll.
Trade unions have urged French people to stage protests on September 18 over the “horror show” draft budget.
Bayrou’s gamble has raised fears that France risks a new period of political and financial instability.
Speaking earlier on August 31, justice minister Gerald Darmanin called on political forces to find a compromise, saying he was concerned that the legacy of the Fifth Republic’s founding father Charles De Gaulle was at risk.
“General De Gaulle’s institutions are at stake if we fall back into the instability of the Fourth Republic, where governments came and went, where the authority of the state was not guaranteed, where the administration had no leader,” Darmanin said.
Recent polls suggested support for the right-wing National Rally (RN) has been steadily rising and the party of Marine Le Pen sensed a real chance to come to power.
RN deputy leader Sebastien Chenu said RN would fight to obtain an absolute majority in parliament’s lower house if new parliamentary elections were called.
“The French people have seen what an assembly without a majority is like,” he said.
“Stability, it’s us,” he said, referring to RN.
France has been mired in deadlock ever since French President Emmanuel Macron gambled on snap elections last summer following far-right gains in European election in the hopes of bolstering his authority.
Voters elected a parliament fractured between three rival blocs, and Macron later acknowledged that his move backfired.
He has also said, though, that the French parliament reflects the political divisions among the public and urged politicians to find a way to work together, pointing to Germany as an example.
