The French government under new Prime Minister Francois Bayrou survived a vote of no-confidence on Thursday evening after the far-right and center-left parties refused to back a motion tabled by the far left.

The far-left France Unbowed party (La France Insoumise or LFI) called the vote after Bayrou suggested reopening talks on a 2023 pension reform aimed at helping cut the country's "excessive" deficits in the upcoming budget.

What did the far-right RN say?

Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), dismissed the idea as "idle talk" by "a man of spineless continuity," but wouldn't go so far as to support the vote of no-confidence.

"We don't think a no-confidence vote should be a gadget to create a buzz," added RN lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy, while the RN's vice-president, Sebastien Chenu, said his party would judge the government "not by its words, but by its actions."

Well short of an absolute majority in a disunited National Assembly, Bayrou and his centrist government are as vulnerable to no-confidence votes as his predecessor, Michel Barnier, whose government collapsed in December after just three months.

What did the socialists say? 

However, Thursday's vote lacked the support not only of the far right but also of the center-left Socialist Party (PS), who had allied with the LFI in the second round of last year's parliamentary elections to defeat the RN.

"We will not censor you [today]," PS leader Olivier Faure told Bayrou during the debate in the National Assembly, but warned that his party could do so "at any moment."

French Prime Minister calls for compromise

Bayrou, France's fourth prime minister in the space of a year, welcomed the socialists' decision not to back the vote, saying:

"The choice before us in this serious situation for our country is one between permanent internal confrontation and an attempt to find the path of dialogue, reflection, compromise and negotiation so that we can get things moving forward."

He accused the radical left LFI of "choosing internal war" for France and of wanting to "make confrontation the law."

LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard told Bayrou that "the days of your government of unhappiness are numbered" and insisted that "when it falls, the monarch will follow" – a sarcastic reference to President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron plunged French politics into chaos last year when he called snap parliamentary elections after the RN's success in European elections, but the vote returned a hopelessly divided National Assembly.

He has acknowledged his decision has led to "divisions" and "instability."

French constitutional rules mean new legislative elections cannot be called until July.

mf/rc (AFP, Reuters)