{"id":416450,"date":"2025-01-16T20:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T19:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/16\/francia-voto-censura-bayrou\/"},"modified":"2025-01-17T12:16:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T11:16:02","slug":"french-pm-bayrou-survives-no-confidence-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/16\/french-pm-bayrou-survives-no-confidence-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"French PM Bayrou survives no-confidence vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – This time, the numbers\u00a0of the Assembl\u00e9e Nationale<\/i><\/strong> did not play in favor of the radical left<\/strong>, whose motion\u00a0of no confidence<\/strong> against Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou<\/strong>\u00a0failed as the\u00a0Socialists defected. <\/strong>At the same time, the extreme right<\/strong>\u00a0also backed out. The head of the transalpine executive gains a few more weeks in power, but there is still the stumbling block of the budget law<\/strong>, which will have to be approved by a parliament that has\u00a0never been so\u00a0fragmented in France’s modern history.<\/p>\n

The vote in the House<\/h3>\n

Late this afternoon (Jan. 16), MPs voted with a broad majority<\/a> against the\u00a0no-confidence motion<\/strong>\u00a0tabled the day before yesterday by La France Insoumise<\/i> (LFI)<\/strong>, the radical left-wing party led by Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon<\/strong> that constitutes the main force within the heterogeneous Nouveau front populaire<\/i> (NFP)<\/strong>, the progressive coalition that also includes socialists, ecologists, and communists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The 131 “yes” votes secured\u00a0by the left<\/strong> were\u00a0not enough, as it required 288 to unseat Bayrou. Numbers\u00a0in hand M\u00e9lenchon and his comrades\u00a0fell short by\u00a066 votes from their Parti Socialiste<\/i> (PS) allies<\/strong> and, most notably, the 124 of the far-right Rassemblement National<\/i> (RN)<\/strong> of Marine Le Pen<\/strong>, daughter of the recently deceased<\/a> Jean-Marie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Marine<\/a>
Rassemblement National group leader Marine Le Pen in the House (photo: Alain Jocard\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the end of the address speech given by the Premier Ministre<\/i><\/strong> in the House, LFI MPs filed the motion of no confidence\u00a0on Tuesday night (Jan. 14). On that occasion, Bayrou had extended an olive branch, primarily to the Social Democrats<\/strong>, opening to\u00a0the possibility of re-negotiating the highly contested pension reform <\/strong>that, in 2023, President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron<\/strong> had pushed through\u00a0parliament by force<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The head of state\u00a0had concurrently stressed the need to reduce the country’s “excessive”\u00a0<\/strong>deficit, which\u00a0already widely exceeded the constraints imposed by Brussels<\/strong> (it currently hovers around 6 percent of GDP<\/strong>, while the ceiling is\u00a03 percent).<\/p>\n

Towards a truce?<\/h3>\n

The offer<\/strong> by Bayrou, who has been in office for just over a month<\/a>, is to open a “workshop” for discussion with the political forces and social partners concerned<\/strong>, but without going into the details of which aspects may undergo a\u00a0revision.<\/p>\n

The tenant of the Matignon palace has proposed three months <\/strong>to\u00a0discuss the issue\u00a0with opposition forces<\/strong> while keeping in place\u00a0Macron’s reform (which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64<\/strong>). Both the left and the right in the assembly oppose the reform.<\/p>\n

\"Jean-Luc<\/a>
La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon (foto: Sebastien Salom-Gomis\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A concession that, at least for the moment, seems to have sufficed for the reformist center-left<\/strong>, which has long tried<\/strong> to distance itself from M\u00e9lenchon’s incendiary rhetoric. The PS, a traditional party with a gubernatorial vocation, does not take kindly to the firings of the allies of Insoumis<\/i><\/strong>, with whom it agreed to form an electoral coalition\u00a0last summer but which is proving increasingly unwieldy<\/strong>\u00a0both ahead of the presidential elections in 2027<\/strong> and, more importantly, the probable early elections that could be called in July<\/strong> of this year (the Constitution prevents citizens from being called to the polls less than 12 months after the last round of elections).<\/p>\n

The reactions<\/h3>\n

In the debate before the vote, RN vice-president Sebastien Chenu<\/strong> said his party would judge the government “not by its words, but by its actions.”<\/strong> In contrast, MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy <\/strong>of Le Pen’s party targeted\u00a0Insoumis<\/i>, claiming that he doesn’t think\u00a0“a vote of no confidence should be a gadget to create a stir.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the vote, LFIgroup leader in the House Mathilde Panot<\/strong> lashed out not only\u00a0at the premier<\/strong> but also\u00a0at the Socialists<\/strong>, accused of “being isolated from the rest of the NFP<\/strong>” and the extreme right<\/strong>, labeling it\u00a0as auxiliaries\u00a0for\u00a0Macron’s center bloc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

“Bayrou won’t fall today, but his days are still numbered.
\nThe responsibility for maintaining a government that the people have rejected three times at the ballot box lies with :<\/p>\n

\u274c PS which has isolated itself from the rest of the NFP.
\n\u274c RN who are the Macronie’s auxiliaries.” -… pic.twitter.com\/hmQhzJFjdq<\/a><\/p>\n

– La France Insoumise #NFP at the Assembly (@FiAssemblee) January 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Uphill Road<\/h3>\n

For now, the Matignon is licking its wounds. However,\u00a0the road ahead for\u00a0Bayrou remains decidedly narrow<\/strong>. Deprived of a solid majority in the Assembl\u00e9e<\/i>, the prime minister depends on the behavior of<\/strong> opposition groups<\/strong>, who can bring him down by voting together on a motion of no confidence, as happened to his predecessor,\u00a0Michel Barnier<\/strong>, ousted after just three months <\/a>as\u00a0head the government. The president of the PS, Olivier Faure<\/strong>, warned the premier that even if it\u00a0did not pass, a\u00a0no-confidence vote\u00a0could come “at any time.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next crucial date is the adoption of the budget law for 2025<\/strong>. The document should be submitted<\/a> to the Senate for a\u00a0first reading on\u00a0Jan. 23. However, the tug-of-war with parliamentary forces promises to be complex<\/strong> and could continue\u00a0into February.<\/p>\n

Turning to deputies before the vote, Bayrou reiterated that “the choice we face in this grave situation for our country is between permanent internal confrontation<\/strong> and trying to find the path of dialogue<\/strong>, reflection, compromise, and negotiation\u00a0to move things forward<\/strong>.” An appeal he may have\u00a0to repeat often in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The no-confidence vote called in the National Assembly by the radical left did not win the cross-party support needed to unseat the French prime minister, who thus remains at the helm of the executive. Crucial is the support of socialists and Le Pen’s party, but the Matignon tenant cannot take it for granted, starting with the approval of the budget law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":413948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26261,30213,30015,27269,28462,30214,26583,26584,30215,29451],"class_list":["post-416450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-censorship-en","tag-francois-bayrou-en","tag-governo-en","tag-jean-luc-melenchon-en","tag-la-france-insoumise-en","tag-marine-le-pen-en-2","tag-rassemblement-national-en","tag-olivier-faure-en","tag-socialisti-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416473,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416450\/revisions\/416473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}