New French PM tells parliament the country’s 'colossal' debt is 'sword of Damocles'

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00:00The new French Prime Minister Michel Barnier this afternoon gave his first major speech

00:04since taking on the job. At the National Assembly he focused on the economy with both tax rises and

00:12spending cuts on the cards now as France seeks to narrow its budget deficit. Now Barnier also

00:18faced quite a bit of discontent in the room with left-wing MPs waving their voting cards to imply

00:25his appointment was not in line with democratic norms.

00:29Here's a little of Michel Barnier speaking a short while ago.

00:35Collectively we are walking a tightrope. We have a lot to do. If we don't manage to do everything

00:41in all areas we have to do things well to meet the expectations of the French people.

00:47We have to do it with the very little we have at our disposal.

00:52Let's speak to Clovis Casali who's our reporter at the National Assembly where Barnier has been

00:57speaking this afternoon. Clovis good to talk to you. Look first of all no surprise really that

01:03in quite a bit of that speech Barnier was focusing on the critical state of France's finances.

01:11Very revealing to hear Michel Barnier the new French Prime Minister starting his

01:17much awaited speech with a reference to his hero General de Gaulle who at the time of this quote

01:23was head of the French resistance writing to one of his friends we've got to do a lot with a little

01:29and Michel Barnier says that it's exactly the situation he's in today. There will not be more

01:35spending but better spending with Michel Barnier's Prime Minister and he said they would that him and

01:42his government would try to reduce deficits as much as possible because forecasts show that

01:48public deficits will be six percent of France's GDP next year and Michel Barnier's aim is to

01:56reduce it to five percent in 2025 and then back to the tolerated under the European rules three

02:03percent in 2029. So priority is to reduce deficits. How will France do that? How will Michel Barnier do

02:12that? Well firstly he says the first remedy is to reduce hugely public spending but he says he will

02:20spare the less privileged of course here in France when it comes to education and health. Also what

02:27does Michel Barnier says or say also he says he wants more efficiency in public spending and by

02:33that he means also fighting fraud and then the French Prime Minister wants to ask companies

02:40big companies making huge profits to contribute more to help the nation in these difficult times.

02:48Clearly France's finances in a critical state and that's the number one priority for Michel Barnier.

02:56And Clovis a bit later on in that speech he emphasised the need for dialogue with the French

03:02people and for compromise and not a particularly easy task it has to be said given the divisions

03:09evident within parliament. And Michel Barnier knows very well that he needs the support or at

03:18least the support on some laws of opposition parties notably the very powerful French far

03:24right at the National Assembly and the powerful also a left-wing bloc. He knows it will be difficult

03:29and not surprising throughout this speech some MPs were shouting at him interrupting him or at least

03:36trying to disrupt his speech saying that he was lying at times when he was saying that he would

03:42defend the environment. Lying also accusing him of lying when it came to defending the less

03:49privileged. The left-wing MPs some left-wing MPs at the National Assembly waving their voting cards

03:57showing the Prime Minister of that disapproval saying that he's giving in to the French far

04:03right and that's a prime concern for many on the left here at the National Assembly. MPs telling us

04:09that Michel Barnier needs to please the far right and it's absolutely unacceptable. Take his Interior

04:15Minister Bruno Roteu saying that immigration wasn't a chance wasn't helping France. Those were

04:22strong words those were highly controversial words and they've angered many MPs here left-wing but

04:28also centrist MPs. In other words for Michel Barnier what will be about of course getting some

04:33kind of compromise negotiation dialogue winning over opponents here at the National Assembly but

04:39it will be a very difficult task. Will his government survive months maybe years? Difficult

04:46to say what we do know is that the left-wing is going to vote in favor of a vote of no confidence

04:51against this government to basically force this government to leave and then the French far right

04:57is ready any minute now to also join when that's the question. In a week, two weeks, three months

05:04who knows but the French far right's more powerful than ever. Clovis Casale for us there live at

05:10Parliament thanks very much indeed.

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