PARIS: French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said on Sunday the destiny of France was at stake in a forthcoming confidence vote, which he called to resolve a budget standoff but is expected to lose.
The September 8 vote in parliament will not decide “the fate of the prime minister” but “the fate of France,” Bayrou said, during an interview with four news channels.
The prime minister stunned France on Monday by saying he would request the vote in a divided parliament, as he tries to garner enough support for his minority government’s plan to slash spending — even as opposition parties say they will not back him.
“I think that the days ahead are crucial,” the 74-year-old prime minister said in the interview with franceinfo, LCI, BFMTV and Cnews.
“If you think that I can give up the battles that I fight, that I am fighting here, that I have been fighting for years and that I will continue to fight in the future, you are mistaken.”
Earlier on Sunday, Socialist leader Olivier Faure said the party’s decision to vote against Bayrou’s government was final.
“The only thing I’m waiting for him to do now is to say goodbye,” Faure said, referring to the prime minister.
Bayrou has said sacrifices must be made to ensure France’s future and bring down the country’s debt.
He 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.
But the measures have proved deeply unpopular, with seven out of 10 French people saying they want Bayrou to lose the confidence vote, according to a recent poll.
Bayrou’s gamble has raised fears that France risks a new period of political and financial instability.
Speaking earlier Sunday, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin called on political forces to find a compromise, saying he was concerned that the legacy of the Fifth Republic’s founding father Charles De Gaulle was at risk.
“General De Gaulle’s institutions are at stake if we fall back into the instability of the Fourth Republic, where governments came and went, where the authority of the state was not guaranteed, where the administration had no leader,” Darmanin said in a speech.
French PM says ‘fate of France’ at stake in confidence vote
https://arab.news/b8mra
French PM says ‘fate of France’ at stake in confidence vote
Campaigning starts in CAR election
- Both of Touadera’s top critics on the ballot paper, ex-Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra and the main opposition leader Anicet-Georges Dologuele, had feared they would be barred from the election over nationality requirements
BANGUI: Campaigning has kicked off in the Central African Republic, with the unstable former French colony’s voters set to cast their ballots in a quadruple whammy of elections on Dec. 28.
Besides national, regional and municipal lawmakers, Centrafri-cains are set to pick their president, with incumbent Faustin-Archange Touadera in pole position out of a seven-strong field after modifying the constitution to allow him to seek a third term.
Thousands of supporters packed into a 20,000-seater stadium in the capital Bangui on Saturday to listen to Touadera, accused by the opposition of wishing to cling on as president-for-life in one of the world’s poorest countries.
In his speech, Touadera, who was first elected in 2016 in the middle of a bloody civil war, styled himself as a defender of the country’s young people and insisted there was work to do to curb ongoing unrest.
“The fight for peace and security is not over,” the president warned the packed stands.
“We must continue to strengthen our army in order to guarantee security throughout the national territory and preserve the unity of our country.”
Both of Touadera’s top critics on the ballot paper, ex-Prime Minister Henri-Marie Dondra and the main opposition leader Anicet-Georges Dologuele, had feared they would be barred from the election over nationality requirements.
Touring the capital’s districts alongside a traveling convoy, Dologuele warned that the upcoming vote represents “a choice for national survival; a choice between resignation and hope.”
“Our people have experienced 10 years of this regime. Ten years of waiting, promises and suffering,” he added.
