Collected photo

PARIS, Aug 31, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who is 
fighting to keep his job in a budget standoff with the opposition, should 
"say goodbye", Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on Sunday.

The centrist prime minister stunned France this week saying he would request 
a vote of confidence in a divided parliament on September 8, as he tries to 
garner enough support for his plan to slash spending.

Bayrou is expected to give a television interview on Sunday evening in a new 
push to grasp a future for himself and his minority government even if polls 
find public opinion stacked against him.

Socialist leader Faure said that the party's decision to vote against 
Bayrou's government on September 8 was final.

"The decision we have made is irrevocable," he told broadcaster BFMTV.

"The only thing I'm waiting for him to do now is to say goodbye," Faure said, 
referring to the prime minister.

Faure also urged President Emmanuel Macron to appoint a left-wing prime 
minister in line with the results of last summer's snap polls when an 
alliance of leftist parties won the most seats but fell short of an absolute 
majority.

From Monday Bayrou, 74, hopes to hold negotiations with the opposition on the 
condition that parties commit to savings measures to reduce France's debt.

While Macron has backed Bayrou, opposition parties from the far-right to the 
hard-left say they will not support Bayrou's austerity budget.

Bayrou said he wanted to save about 44 billion euros ($51 billion) with 
measures that include reducing the number of holidays and placing a freeze on 
spending increases.

The measures have proved deeply unpopular, and trade unions have called for 
protests in September.

Seven out of 10 French people want Bayrou to lose the confidence vote, 
according to an Elabe poll conducted for BFMTV.

Bayrou's gamble has raised fears that France risks a new period of prolonged 
political and financial instability.

Macron gambled on snap polls last summer in a bid to head off the far-right 
and bolster his authority, but the move left a deadlocked parliament.

Macron later acknowledged that his decision to call snap elections backfired.

But he has pointed out that the French parliament reflects the political 
divisions among the French public and has urged politicians to find a way to 
work together, pointing to Germany as an example.