Eight days before his probable fall, Bayrou does not want to give up anything

François Bayrou said in a television interview on Sunday that the "issue" at stake in the vote of confidence in his government on September 8 was not "the destiny of the Prime Minister," but that of "the destiny of France."

"If the government falls, as (the opposition) hopes, as they announce (...) well, that means we will change policy. We will abandon or would abandon the policy, which for me is vital for the country," for "another" policy that is "more lax," "more adrift," pleaded the French Prime Minister. In office since December, François Bayrou will commit his government to the responsibility of France's debt reduction and the budgetary course to be set for 2026, during a vote of confidence in the National Assembly on September 8.

The left and the far right have insisted that they will vote against the confidence vote, making the fall of Mr. Bayrou, whose government is the result of a coalition between the center and the right, almost inevitable.

For the Prime Minister, this interview granted to four continuous news channels is "certainly not a goodbye", while the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, earlier declared "irrevocable" the decision of the Socialists to refuse confidence , adding that it was time for the head of government to say "goodbye". "Olivier Faure, what does he want? He wants to be at Matignon", Mr. Bayrou dismissed.

"I think precisely that the coming days are crucial." And "if you imagine that I can abandon the battles that I am leading, that I am leading here, that I have been leading before, for years, and that I will continue to lead after, you are mistaken," insisted the centrist, who has run for president three times. "Almost all French people know perfectly well that an indebted country is a country that no longer has its sovereignty, that no longer has its freedom," insisted the head of government.

The September 8 vote opens a new period of uncertainty, with Emmanuel Macron at the forefront, in a context of eruption in society. The president, urged by the extremists to resign or dissolve the National Assembly, will undoubtedly have to immediately begin the search for a new prime minister.

The French president reiterated his support for François Bayrou on Friday in Toulon (south), who "is right to hold political and parliamentary forces accountable" for the country's poor budgetary situation.

"France needs a budget on time," given a financial situation that is "not critical, but still worrying," the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, said on Sunday.

The current political instability, unprecedented under the Fifth French Republic, proclaimed in 1958 precisely to put an end to the waltz of governments, was triggered by the dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024 by Emmanuel Macron.