French PM Bayrou survives first no-confidence vote in parliament

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Thursday survived his first vote of no confidence in parliament after the motion, brought by the leftist opposition, failed to gain traction with the far right.

The challenge in the National Assembly came after Bayrou's statement this week on his government policy agenda, in which he opened the door to fresh talks on a 2023 pension reform "without taboo" but also said that France's "excessive" deficits needed to be cut in this year's budget.

The speech sparked condemnation from most of the opposition in parliament where Bayrou -- in the job only since last month -- is well short of an absolute majority, making his government highly vulnerable to any no-confidence vote that, if successful, would force it to resign.

Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), dismissed it as "idle talk" by "a man of spineless continuity".

But the backers of the no-confidence motion, submitted by the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, failed to win the RN's backing.

"We don't think a no-confidence vote should be a gadget to create a buzz," RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy said ahead of the vote.

The RN's vice-president, Sebastien Chenu, added before the vote that his party would judge the government "not by its words, but by its actions".

Tanguy warned, however, that the RN might still come for Bayrou over his budget for 2025, which is overdue after the previous government of Michel Barnier was toppled over its austerity plans.

The new government's budget announcement would be a "moment of truth", Tanguy said.

'Another path'

The near-certainty of defeat as the vote neared did little to diminish LFI's combativity.

"Mr Prime Minister, the days of your government of unhappiness are numbered," said LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard as the debate on the no-confidence motion began.

"And when it falls, the monarch will follow," he said, in a reference to President Emmanuel Macron, who only last month appointed Bayrou as France's fourth prime minister within a year.

Bayrou, meanwhile, accused the hard left of trying to take France down the path of "infighting".

The prime minister welcomed the decision of the Socialists to deny the LFI motion their backing, despite having been allied with the LFI since last year's general election.

The Socialists' defection showed that "another path towards understanding is opening up", Bayrou said.

The LFI's firebrand leader Jean-Luc Melenchon on Thursday evening vented that Bayrou "has just scored a point" thanks to "those who are running the Socialists today and have weakened us".

But he denied that the leftist New Popular Front (NFP) alliance had cracked despite the Socialists' refusal to back toppling Bayrou.

For their part, the Ecologists and Communists, who are both part of the NFP, made it clear that they intended to continue discussions with the government despite voting in favour of the motion.

The no-confidence vote won the backing of 131 deputies, well short of the 288 it needed to pass.

French politics was plunged into chaos last year when Macron called an election to break political deadlock but the vote returned a hopelessly divided lower chamber.

Macron has acknowledged his decision to dissolve the National Assembly had led to "divisions" and "instability".

Constitutional rules mean new legislative elections cannot be called until July.