French MPs hold final cabinet meeting with govt facing collapse

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00:00Now, to France for the next story,

00:02because the French government is holding its last cabinet meeting

00:04before Monday's crucial vote in Parliament

00:07that is set to topple the government.

00:09François Beirut is set to lose the confidence vote

00:12that he has called over France's budget.

00:15Now, he failed to persuade the main opposition parties

00:18to support him as he met with them during the day yesterday.

00:22As we can cross now to the Élysée Palace,

00:25where that meeting is being held,

00:27we're going to talk to our reporter, Antonia Kerrigan,

00:29who joins us from there.

00:30Antonia, it's looking pretty bleak, isn't it, for François Beirut?

00:33The atmosphere not likely to be very good in that meeting, is it?

00:39I think it's very likely something more akin to a council of war

00:42because, as you say, François Beirut has made

00:45of these €43.8 billion in budget cuts his hill to die on

00:51and he's put his government on the line next week.

00:55Now, the measures include a policy, for instance,

00:58of not replacing one in three civil servants who retire,

01:01as well as cancelling two public holidays

01:03as part of a long list of measures.

01:06Now, the plan has little support from the different opposition camps

01:10for varying reasons.

01:11The far right said he should be finding the money in savings

01:15around immigration, that by cutting immigration,

01:18he could make drastic savings.

01:19The left say he should be finding the money

01:21by taxing the richest in society.

01:23And the Conservative right, although they might be ideologically

01:26fairly aligned with this plan of budget cuts,

01:29they don't really want to necessarily, or some of them,

01:32don't want to cosign something quite so unpopular

01:35as cancelling two public holidays

01:37when elections could be just around the corner.

01:40Now, the Prime Minister's set to meet with the leader

01:42of the Socialist Party tomorrow,

01:44where it looks like there could be some room for negotiation,

01:47but the Socialist Party is going to be very careful

01:49about what they cosign and what they get in return.

01:52Meanwhile, the right flank of François Bayrou's government

01:55is going to have fairly firm red lines

01:58and don't want to be alienated by too close

02:01in association with the Socialist Party.

02:03So there'll be several intense days of politicking ahead,

02:06and it's hard to see how François Bayrou

02:09comes out of next week's confidence vote victorious.

02:13Yeah, Antonio, could there be some concessions

02:15perhaps announced after the meeting today?

02:19Well, we've already heard François Bayrou

02:22talking about state medical aid for undocumented migrants.

02:26He said he wants to see a review

02:27of what types of health care are covered by it.

02:31And that's, of course, a concession in a way.

02:33It's a gesture to the right and to the far right

02:36that some savings could be found there.

02:38But, of course, you could also point out

02:41it's not a concession, it's additional savings.

02:43It doesn't cancel any of the other things on the list.

02:45But we have heard more talk about these two bank holidays.

02:50He has said, the Prime Minister has said,

02:52he's willing to explore alternatives.

02:54Of course, these two bank holidays he was looking to cancel,

02:57they represent about $4 billion

02:59out of this $44 billion budget cuts plan.

03:05So fairly symbolic in terms of the grand scheme of things,

03:09in terms of how much money they represent,

03:11but also so very unpopular,

03:13it might be an inexpensive concession

03:16he could make to some of those opposition parties

03:20to make them feel less in danger

03:23by letting him off scot-free next Monday.

03:27So we'll be keeping our ears peeled here

03:30for announcements on that and on other fronts.

03:33Thank you very much.

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