A little respite, but still on borrowed time. François Bayrou escaped the first motion of censure filed against his government on Thursday. The vast majority of socialists have in fact decided to dissociate themselves from the rest of the left in the face of an “unprecedented” political situation. After much hesitation within the group of socialist deputies, at the end of a long national office, the strategic body of the Socialist Party, the PS decided not to vote on this first motion of censure tabled by France Insoumise (LFI) and supported by environmentalists and communists.
The motion was approved by 131 deputies – including eight socialists – far from the 288 needed to bring down François Bayrou. The suspense did not lie in the outcome of the election, the RN having announced that it would not vote this time with the New Popular Front, but in the position of the PS, which since 2022 had almost always added its votes to the rest of the left alliance on such motions.
The First Secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, defended in front of a sparse chamber the choice of his party to embody “a left which proposes and which advances”. The socialist deputy for Seine-et-Marne welcomed the concessions “wrested” from François Bayrou or a restart of the pension reform, the “keystone” of the negotiations.
François Bayrou’s letter
On Thursday, François Bayrou listed his multiple budgetary commitments in writing to socialist deputies. “I would like to confirm and clarify certain points to which your attention has been focused,” wrote the Prime Minister after ten days of intense negotiations in a letter addressed to the presidents of the PS groups in the Assembly and the Senate, Boris Vallaud and Patrick Kanner, just an hour before the examination of a motion of censure in the Assembly. Everything that was not included in the Prime Minister’s general policy statement is there, or almost.
In this three-page document, the head of government discusses pension reform, where he assures that even “if the social partners do not reach an overall agreement”, his government will present a “new bill”, “subject to of a political agreement and an overall financial balance maintained. “A very considerable change” granted by the government, said this Friday on BFMTV the Minister of Economy and Finance Eric Lombard.
This letter from François Bayrou in the form of an inventory of the multiple measures already unveiled by the government also mentions the abandonment of the two new waiting days for civil servants and the renunciation of the 4,000 job cuts in education. The Prime Minister also speaks of the “cancellation (of) the partial dereimbursement” of medicines and medical consultations, and the “one billion euros” increase in health spending, which François Bayrou announced on Tuesday. The head of government also renounces the cuts planned for Overseas Territories, whose budget will on the contrary be “higher than that of 2024”, and for France Travail which will therefore not be cut by 500 positions.
On the tax side, François Bayrou notes the “maintenance” of the new “differential contribution on high incomes” (which should bring in 2 billion euros) while waiting to replace it “at the latest” in 2026 with a “sustainable fight against against unfair tax optimization”. Likewise, the “provisional surcharge” on large companies will be retained, “for an expected amount of 8 billion euros”. To this will be added 400 million more on the “tax on share buybacks”, a reduction of the same amount on the Research Tax Credit, as well as a minimal increase (0.1 point) in the tax on financial transactions.
The Angry Rebels
Despite these concessions obtained, Olivier Faure, who must face internally a PS congress planned for 2025, however warned: the PS will remain “in the opposition”, reserving at any time the possibility of censoring the government . Olivier Faure reaffirmed his wish that Parliament “have the last word” on pensions, and vowed that if the debate was “locked”, the PS would “put down a motion”.
Not enough for the Rebels, who attacked the socialists on Thursday, as in previous days. The leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused the PS of having “capitulated” and “fractured the New Popular Front”. On Tuesday, the three-time presidential candidate judged that the socialists had “a choice” to make: “Vote for censorship or support the government.” “All those who do not vote for censure are leaving the NFP agreement so we are putting options on their constituency”, namely presenting rebellious candidates against them, the leader of the radical left had warned.
Within the LFI group, MP Aurélien Taché already affirms that “there is no point in the socialists getting back into demonstrations”, at the risk of being insulted. Manuel Bompard, coordinator of La France insoumise, indicated on BFMTV that his party would bring together its authorities soon to “draw the consequences” of the socialists’ decision.