The French finance minister, Éric Lombard, has said the government would have to compromise on plans to cut the budget deficit if the prime minister, François Bayrou, is toppled in a confidence vote next week.
Lombard told the Financial Times that fresh negotiations would require the government to make concessions to the left to reduce the size of the fiscal package if the government falls.
While opposition parties have said they will vote against Bayrou and bring down the government on Monday, Lombard said he still hoped Bayrou would survive. Lombard said he was confident that either Bayrou or a successor could still pass a budget before the year-end deadline.
He dismissed concerns of an impending debt crisis in France, saying: “We will take care of the deficits.”
Bayrou this week began a last-ditch round of talks with party leaders, days before he is expected to be ousted over his unpopular austerity measures and debt-reduction plan.
The prime minister, who has vowed to “fight like a dog” before the confidence vote he has called for 8 September, said the “fate of France” was hanging in the balance.
But opposition parties said this week it was too late for him, that there would be no support for the budget measures and that Bayrou would certainly fall, bringing the government down and leaving France in a political crisis.
Bayrou, a centrist and longtime ally of the president, Emmanuel Macron, said the coming days were crucial to gain support for his proposed €44bn (£38bn) budget squeeze, which includes scrapping two public holidays and freezing most welfare spending, without which he said France would struggle with the “curse” of public debt.
The Communists, the first party to meet Bayrou on Monday, said there was no chance of Bayrou surviving the vote. Stéphane Peu, a Communist lawmaker, said: “This government is going to fall.”
Marine Le Pen, of the far-right National Rally, said after meeting Bayrou this week that there had been “no miracle” and the party was resolved to vote against him. She said Bayrou was “in denial, cut off and irresponsible”. The National Rally president, Jordan Bardella, said the current government was a “sinking ship”.
The Socialist party said it would only meet Bayrou this week to say goodbye. Other parties on the left, including the Greens and La France Insoumise, refused to meet Bayrou, saying it was pointless.
The leader of parliament, Yaël Braun-Pivet, a key figure in Macron’s centrist grouping, told France Inter radio this week: “There maybe should have been more dialogue with opposition parties this summer.”
She said Bayrou should abandon his proposal to scrap two bank holidays. But she reiterated her trust in the prime minister, saying that if the government fell, there should be cross-party talks to find some kind of broad consensus on a 2026 budget.
It is not certain what would follow Bayrou’s expected fall. Macron could appoint a new prime minister, who would also be likely to face the same divisions over the budget. Macron has said he is not in favour of calling another snap election.
Parliament has been deadlocked since Macron called an inconclusive snap election last June. The national assembly is divided between three groups with no absolute majority: a left alliance took the most seats but fell short of an absolute majority; Macron’s centrist grouping took losses but is still present; and the National Rally gained seats but was held back by tactical voting from the left and centre.
