François Bayrou will ‘fight like a dog’ to stay in power and defend his austerity budget
France is braced for another political crisis as the minority government of François Bayrou appears almost certain to be toppled in a confidence vote next month, with deep political divisions over an unpopular austerity budget and debt-reduction plan.
“I will fight like a dog,” the centrist prime minister told L’Express on Tuesday, after his surprise decision to call a vote of confidence from parliamentarians.
Bayrou, 74, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, is expected to lose the vote as opposition parties on the farn right and left said they would relish the opportunity to eject him after less than nine months in office. Boris Vallaud, head of the Socialist parliamentary group, told BFM TV: “We need to change politics and for that, we need to change prime minister.”
Bayrou’s gamble – which involves Macron convening a special session of parliament on 8 September for a confidence vote that the prime minister has almost no chance of winning – has sparked fears of another political crisis less than a year after the previous government of Michel Barnier was toppled over budget disagreements after only three months.
