To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.

One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.

Le Premier ministre François Bayrou le 26 août 2025, à Boissy-la-Rivière, dans l'Essonne Le Premier ministre François Bayrou le 26 août 2025, à Boissy-la-Rivière, dans l'Essonne © Thibaud MORITZ / POOL/AFP

08:44

Issued on: 07/09/2025 - 11:29

France is under acute pressure to fix its finances. Saying tough decisions were needed, Bayrou, a veteran centre-right politician and Macron's fourth prime minister since Macron's re-election, sought to pass a budget for 2026 that would require 44 billion euros ($51.51 billion) in savings, including pension freezes, healthcare cuts, and the scrapping of two public holidays. This provoked an outcry from opponents. Unable to see a path to adoption, Bayrou called a confidence vote on his fiscal strategy, in a gamble the opposition called political suicide. Analysis by Richard Werly, international correspondent at Blick.

Keywords for this article

Read less Read more