“The new year in France begins exactly as the old one ended: with a vote of censure against the government,” writes a journalist from the German weekly at the start of his article. Die Zeit. “Four different prime ministers governed in Paris last year, 2024,” he continues. Yesterday, Tuesday January 14, François BayrouPrime Minister appointed at the end of December after censorship by the government of Michel Barnierpronounced his general policy statement in front of the deputies, supposed to set the course for its future action. “But the new government of François Bayrou is also in a precarious situation, and could fall at any time,” underlines The New York Times.
In the process, part of the left, 58 deputies (mainly from La France Insoumise, communists and ecologists) tabled a motion of censure of his government, which the socialist party, still ready to negotiate, is currently hesitating to vote. Among the most important and scrutinized points of François Bayrou’s speech: pension reform, which the left was expecting to be suspended or even repealed. “The new Prime Minister has got around the obstacle by passing the buck to the social partners who will be able to unravel the legislative text, or even replace it, but on one condition: agree on a financing method that allows identical savings”, reports the Swiss newspaper Blick. “This approach appears to be an effort to save time,” comments The New York Times.
“Tasteless politics”
Same observation from the Spanish daily El País. “In reality, it is a suspension that does not say its name, because the increase in the retirement age that the reform proposed does not come into force before 2026, indicates the newspaper. So that François Bayrou, without violating the parliamentary balance too much, gave the Socialist Party what it asked for in order not to vote for a motion of censure. A way, all in all, to gain time.”
François Bayrou, like his short-lived predecessor Michel Barnier, compared the debt to a “sword of Damocles” hanging over France, note Politicowhile France still does not have a budget for 2025. “The only serious law passed in recent months was an update of the current budget”, indicates Die Zeit, referring to the blocked situation in the chamber of parliament, without a clear majority, since the early legislative elections of this summer. “Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call early legislative elections in June plunged the National Assembly into turmoil after the centrists lost the vote, strengthening the far right and a left alliance, recalls The Daily Telegraph. “In total, Emmanuel Macron has already exhausted five heads of government in seven and a half years as president, François Bayrou is the sixth. The shorter the mandates, the more insipid politics becomes,” concludes the German newspaper.