France has one of the highest and longest-standing budget deficits in the eurozone – but attempts to resolve it have already toppled one government. View on euronews

The French government expects a planned levy to counter tax optimization by the richest individuals to raise €2 billion ($2.1 billion) this year, according to Finance Ministry officials.

France’s Parti Socialiste refused to back a motion of no confidence in François Bayrou’s government. It sold out its left-wing allies for feeble concessions, renewing the party’s dismal record of tailing neoliberal centrists.

President Emmanuel Macron picked François Bayrou as France’s new prime minister earlier this month, despite his lack of any parliamentary majority. Bayrou’s appointment on December 13 came just over a week after his predecessor Michel Barnier’s government was felled by a no-confidence vote proposed by the Left and joined by the far right,

The European Union has told France its plan for slower deficit reduction next year is still within the bloc’s rules, handing Francois Bayrou ’s government a reprieve in its battle to repair creaking public finances.

With political instability rocking Europe’s second-largest economy, the Governor of the Central Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, has called on the government to restore "credibility" around its fiscal management.

Newly appointed French Prime Minister François Bayrou survived a no-confidence vote on Thursday after the opposition Socialist Party chose not to back the motion. In the surprise turn of events, most Socialist lawmakers decided not to withdraw their confidence in Bayrou's government unlike their left-wing allies,

Heavily indebted France has received the green light from the Council of the European Union for its plans to gradually reduce its substantial deficit. The body of governments of the EU member states,

The long-term survival prospects of French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou's minority government have shrunk as he fights to keep the Socialist Party from backing a no-confidence vote on Thursday. Although Bayrou looks likely to ride out the no-confidence motion put forward by 58 far-left France Unbowed (LFI),

Shortly after the policy statement of France's new Prime Minister François Bayrou, a vote of no confidence was filed against his government on Tuesday evening. Members of the leftist party France Unbowed (LFI) justified the move with the composition of the centre-right Cabinet and Bayrou's budget policy.

The prospects of French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou's minority government surviving in the long term appeared slimmer after the Socialist Party raised the threat of backing a no-confidence vote on Thursday.

Olivier Blanchard told POLITICO that the country is “absolutely not doing what is needed” to get its finances in order.