PARIS — French Prime Minister François Bayrou slammed the country’s previous leaders and opposition parties for ignoring increasing indebtedness in his first major policy speech, accusing the whole political class of having danced a “fatal tango that brought us to the edge of the precipice.”
“Every party of government, without exception, is responsible for the situation created over the last few decades,” Bayrou told lawmakers on Tuesday. The 73-year-old centrist listed the debt increases under each French president since Socialist François Mitterrand in 1981 — drawing jeers from the various political groups that have been in charge since then.
Bayrou, like his short-lived predecessor Michel Barnier, compared the debt to a “sword of Damocles” hanging over France.
In the same vein, Bayrou argued that spending on pensions had largely contributed to the increase in debt, insisting that a 2023 reform, which involved a two-year increase in the minimum retirement age, was a “vital necessity.”
Still, Bayrou acknowledged that the debate around pensions “continues to torment our country.” President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 has become both a hallmark of his presidency and one of its most rejected policies.
The center-left Socialist Party, whose support Bayrou is seeking to ensure his survival in office, requested that the policy’s implementation be halted and talks reopened. While the government stopped short of offering that, Bayrou agreed to convene social partners, including trade unions and industry representatives, to explore the possibility of a new reform.
“I hope that an agreement can be reached. But if the partners fail to do so, the current reform will continue to apply,” the prime minister said, adding that the only prerequisite would be for the reform not to “damage the financial balance we are seeking.”
In a speech which dragged on for over an hour also voiced his support for France to move towards proportional voting instead of a two-round system and doubled-down on the need to “reconciliate” the population against the backdrop of deep polarization.
Though Bayrou as prime minister will mostly deal with domestic issues — leaving foreign affairs to President Emmanuel Macron, his ally — he also addressed the fraught geopolitical situation that France and Europe face, caught between a historical ally in the United States that now appears ready to “flaunt” the rules-based international order, and China, which is “weaving the web of its economic, technological, diplomatic and military domination.”
Bayrou mentioned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s “threats” to annex Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. The prime minister even name-checked Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, who he said represents “the unbridled face of this new world order, or rather this new world disorder, which threatens all balances and all rules of decency.
“It’s time to face the facts. These great powers, whom we respect, it’s up to us to let them know who we are, because without our determination, they’ll forget,” Bayrou said.
This developing story is being updated.