French PM takes confidence vote gamble over budget woes

Published

5 days ago

August 26, 2025

France’s Prime Minister Francois Bayrou speaks during a press conference in Paris on August 25, 2025.

Dimitar Dilkoff | Afp | Getty Images

France’s minority government on Tuesday faced the prospect of collapse within weeks, after opposition parties said they would not back Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in a Sept. 8 confidence vote tied to his budget cut plans.

The Paris CAC 40 index was 2% lower in early deals on Tuesday. French medium to long-term borrowing costs ticked higher, with the country’s 10-year bond yield up 2 basis points and its 30-year yield up 4 basis points.

France’s need to lower its public deficit is a long-running and highly politically contentious subject. Forcing through a 2025 budget without parliamentary approval last year led to the collapse of the previous minority government led by Michel Barnier. Political volatility has increased in France since the July 2024 parliamentary election failed to deliver any party or coalition a majority.

Bayrou is now seeking to pass a 2026 budget containing around 44 billion euros ($51.2 billion) in fiscal tightening, with his proposals including freezing welfare and pension spending, as well as tax brackets, at 2025 levels. He has also proposed cutting two public holidays in a highly unpopular move.

The government argues cutbacks are needed to tame a deficit which totaled 5.8% of gross domestic product in 2024 — a figure it says will continue to rise without action. The European Union states that its members should target a 3% deficit ratio in order to reduce excessive debt.

French economic growth has meanwhile been sluggish, cooling to 1.2% in 2024 from 1.4% the prior year.

Speaking to press on Monday, Bayou said France’s dependence on debt had become “chronic.”

“Our country is in danger, because we are at risk of over-indebtedness,” he said, according to a CNBC translation.

Bayrou said French debt had grown by 2 trillion euros over the last two decades, noting that the country had weathered events including the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, inflation spike and most recently the impact of U.S. tariffs. He added that the budget dispute should be resolved through an orderly debate in parliament followed by a vote, rather than through “street clashes and insults.”

Comments by officials from the far-right National Rally, the Greens and the Socialists suggested no party will officially back him, risking government collapse.

Pierre Jouvet, general secretary of the Socialist Party, said on the X social media platform on Monday that the group would vote against Bayou, and that the government did not have the confidence of parliament or the French people. Jouvet added the party would present its own budget proposals in the coming days.

National Rally President Jordan Bardella said his party would “never vote confidence in a government whose choices make the French people suffer,” according to a CNBC translation.

Risk of collapse ‘not priced’

“Should the government lose the confidence vote, President Macron may seek to nominate a different Prime Minister to form a government, who would then face the immediate challenge of passing a 2026 budget,” analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a Tuesday note.

“Alternatively, Macron could call snap elections. Current polls point to another fragmented outcome as happened after the summer 2024 snap vote, though with the far-right [National Rally] leading in polls, investors would be watchful whether it could translate this lead into an outright majority this time round.”

Following the Monday news, the spread on Italian 10-year bond yields over France’s fell to 9.8 basis points, its lowest level since 1999, the analysts said — sign that investors are putting a similar premium on the countries’ political risk. In 2022, the spread was as high as 180 basis points.

Reinout de Bock, UBS head of European rates strategy, told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Tuesday that Bayrou’s call for a confidence vote was a “surprise” to markets.

“I think this is not priced at all, and it’s potentially a big story in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

“In Europe right now, it’s really about spending more than we had 10-15 years ago…The challenge for France is that they’re having a budget deficit [of] around 5.8% of GDP. That is the biggest budget deficit in the euro area, and there [are] open questions to what extent they will succeed in reducing spending.”

Bayrou could cling on

Erik Nelson, head of G10 FX strategy at Wells Fargo, called the outlook for French assets “not great” — but said the outcome for Bayrou’s government was not a foregone conclusion.

“I think part of the issue here is that European equities, the euro itself, have been a very popular momentum trade throughout the year. What we’re seeing in the last couple of days has been a little bit of unwind of some of the momentum trades that have been working, and so there is the risk there that we can see further unwind on some of these political risks,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“I don’t know that Bayrou is definitely out. There’s still some uncertainty there. He’s got a lot of things he can offer the opposition.”

He noted that the French prime minister had previously threatened — and could now walk back — plans to remove some public holidays.

“Surely that’s going to be taken off the table. So it’s not a done deal, but they’re walking a very fine line here, and as I mentioned earlier, given where market positioning in European assets, there’s a lot of risks,” Nelson said.

However, political analyst and consultant Julien Hoez said it was “almost certain” that Bayrou would lose the vote.

“Despite Bayrou saying that all austerity measures were negotiable, the reality is that the opposition parties don’t trust him,” political analyst Julien Hoez told CNBC. Unsuccessful negotiations earlier in the year over reform of French President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial 2023 move to raise France’s retirement age in line with the Socialists’ demands fractured relations with the government, Hoez said.

No-confidence votes from members of the Greens, Socialists, far-left La France Insoumise and National Rally — as appears likely — would then tally up to 315 votes, well above the 289 needed to topple the government, Hoez added.

“The more important question is what happens after, with Macron having agreed to an extraordinary session of the [National Assembly] for this vote, which will show the impossibility of governing with the extremes in today’s configuration, and will actually be more of a push towards another election than any other outcome,” he said.

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Aid flotilla with Greta Thunberg set to sail for Gaza to ‘break illegal siege’ | Greta Thunberg

Published

2 hours ago

August 31, 2025

Guardian staff reporter

A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, is due to leave from Barcelona on Sunday to try to “break the illegal siege of Gaza”, organisers said.

The vessels will set off from the Spanish port city to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”, said the Global Sumud Flotilla.

They did not say how many ships would set sail or the exact time of departure.

The flotilla is expected to arrive at the war-ravaged coastal enclave in mid-September.

“This will be the largest solidarity mission in history, with more people and more boats than all previous attempts combined,” Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila told journalists in Barcelona last week.

Organisers say that dozens of other vessels are expected to leave Tunisian and other Mediterranean ports on 4 September.

Activists will also stage simultaneous demonstrations and other protests in 44 countries “in solidarity with the Palestinian people”, Thunberg, who is part of the flotilla’s steering committee, wrote on Instagram.

As well as Thunberg, the flotilla will include activists from several countries, European lawmakers and public figures such as former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.

“We understand that this is a legal mission under international law,” leftwing Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortágua, who will join the mission, told journalists in Lisbon last week.

Israel has already blocked two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza, in June and July.

In June, 12 activists on board the sailboat Madleen were intercepted by Israeli forces 185km west of Gaza. Its passengers, who included Thunberg, were detained and eventually expelled.

In July, 21 activists from 10 countries were intercepted as they tried to approach Gaza in another vessel, the Handala.

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No. 9 LSU outlasts No. 4 Clemson as Garrett Nussmeier outduels Cade Klubnik in top-10 showdown

Published

3 hours ago

August 31, 2025

John Talty

No. 9 LSU went on the road and shocked No. 4 Clemson 17-10 to pick up a crucial road victory and firmly cement its place in the national championship picture. The battle went down to the final minutes, but LSU coach Brian Kelly finally picked up his first season-opening victory as Tigers coach.

Tied 10-10 at the start of the fourth quarter, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier put together a legacy drive. After he was roughed on a completion to Aaron Anderson, Nussmeier ran for a third-down conversion and then found tight end Trey’Dez Green for an 8-yard touchdown to give LSU a lead it would never surrender.

Clemson had three more chances to get back into the end zone, turning it over on downs once and going three-and-out to set up a pivotal final drive. Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik completed a big-time pass to T.J. Moore while taking a shot to lead a drive into the red zone. Facing fourth-and-4, LSU defender Harold Perkins brought pressure and forced an incompletion to end the game.

Playing against a phenomenal Clemson defense, Nussmeier stepped up big, completing 28 of 38 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown in the win. Anderson was his top target, catching six passes for 99 yards, including a 39-yarder. Running back Caden Durham went for 74 yards and a touchdown. Klubnik was strong, throwing for 230 yards, with four receivers hitting four catches. However, the lack of running game (20 carries for 31 yards) stood tall in the biggest moments.

Read on below for takeaways from LSU’s season-opening win over Clemson on Saturday.

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Powerball jackpot jumps to an estimated $1.1 billion after no winning tickets in Saturday’s drawing

Published

3 hours ago

August 31, 2025

The Editors

Powerball numbers drawn for Saturday’s $1 billion jackpot

00:28

The Powerball jackpot has risen to an estimated $1.1 billion, the fifth-largest ever in the game’s history, after there were no winning tickets for Saturday night’s $1 billion grand prize.

Saturday’s winning numbers were 3, 18, 22, 27 and 33, with a Powerball of 17. There were nine tickets that matched all five white balls to win $1 million, but no ticket matched all six.

The $1.1 billion jackpot for Monday night’s drawing has an estimated cash value of $498.4 million.

Based on the jackpot estimate, a single jackpot winner Monday would have the choice of taking a lump sum payment of $498.4 million before taxes, or going with the annuity option, which would consist of one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year, each payment also before taxes.

Saturday’s drawing marked the sixth time in the game’s 33-year history that the top prize has climbed to the billion-dollar mark.

No one has won Powerball’s jackpot since May 31, when a single ticket in California won a $204.5 million jackpot with a cash value of $91.6 million.

Four of the five previous billion-plus-jackpot-winning tickets were sold in California, including a single ticket sold in Altadena in 2022 that claimed a $2.04 billion jackpot, the largest in both Powerball and lottery history.

The next drawing, which takes place from the Florida Lottery live draw studio in Tallahassee, is on Monday at 11 p.m. ET. Tickets are $2 and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Kierra Frazier

contributed to this report.

Kiki Intarasuwan

Kiki Intarasuwan is a news editor for CBS News & Stations.

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