French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou will seek a high-stakes confidence vote in parliament on September 8 over unpopular plans to clean up France’s public finances.
Bayrou’s move will gauge whether he has enough support in a fragmented parliament for his 44 billion euro ($51.51 billion) budget squeeze as he tries to tame a budget deficit that hit 5.8% of gross domestic product last year, nearly double the official EU limit of 3%.
If he loses the confidence vote, Bayrou’s minority government will fall.
“We face an immediate danger, which we must tackle ... otherwise we have no future,” Bayrou told a news conference about the debt burden. “Our country is in danger.”
Bayrou said the confidence vote would focus on whether lawmakers agree with the gravity of the danger, and choose the path ahead to fix it.
