François Bayrou defends his budget plan: France is "borrowing on the backs of the youngest, a family would never do that"

François Bayrou stated on Sunday, August 31, during an interview given to the four rolling news channels, that the "question" at stake during the vote of confidence on September 8 was not "the destiny of the Prime Minister" but that of "the destiny of France" .

The Prime Minister said the government's policy in the 2026 budget, which aims to reduce the country's debt, is "vital for the country," adding that "the coming days are crucial" as he submits his government to a vote of confidence in the General Assembly on Monday, September 8.

This interview with Franceinfo, LCI, BFM-TV and Cnews is "certainly not a goodbye" , declared Mr. Bayrou, while the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, declared on Sunday that the decision of the socialists to refuse confidence was "irrevocable" , adding that it was time for the head of government to say "goodbye" .

"Olivier Faure, what does he want? He wants to be at Matignon (...) with a government from which he would have excluded LFI [La France Insoumise] , and I don't see where he would find other support and other votes," criticized Mr. Bayrou.

"What the Socialist Party is proposing is not to curb spending, but to let spending start up again and to do so by creating, according to my accounts, 32 billion euros in taxes, mainly on businesses," attacked the Prime Minister, who also spoke out against the Zucman tax – a 2% tax on assets exceeding 100 million euros – which he said was "unconstitutional" and "a threat to investment in France."

On budgetary matters, Mr. Bayrou considered that the proposal to eliminate two public holidays per year is "completely debatable." "I think it could be one [public holiday eliminated and not two] without difficulty if we want to discuss it," he specified. On the other hand, "what we cannot discuss is the seriousness of the problem," stressed the Prime Minister, calling for France to be freed "from the immediate curse of debt." "If the debt no longer increases, then the country's activity makes it more bearable every day," he argued.

Today, "we are borrowing on the backs of the youngest, a family would never do that," he declared, while specifying that he had "never said that we should target the boomers" - people born during the post-war "baby boom", a period of sustained growth for France. "I said that this generation should be with me to reduce the debt of the youngest," explained the tenant of Matignon, who said he saw in the youth "a generation that feels sacrificed" and "without a destiny" .

Furthermore, while Edouard Philippe, the president of Horizons, has judged in recent days that a dissolution was "inevitable" , Mr. Bayrou has contested this prospect. "I don't believe that," he declared, arguing that "as long as we don't change the voting method, you can dissolve it as much as you like, you will find exactly the same divisions, the same difficulties (...), the same inability to act."