00:00All eyes are on the French Assemblée Nationale as Prime Minister François Bacroux, the country's
00:06fourth leader in less than two years, faces a crucial confidence vote that he's expected to lose.
00:13It could plunge France, the Eurozone's second largest economy, into deeper political and economic
00:18turmoil. The timing could not be worse as Europe grapples with Russia's war in Ukraine,
00:25rising China, not to mention growing trade tensions with Washington.
00:30France has not seen this level of political instability since the 1950s fourth republic
00:35when it had five prime ministers in just two years. This is what the prime minister had to say earlier.
00:46I wanted this test of truth as head of government, with the approval of the president of the republic.
00:52Some of you, the majority, probably the most sensible, thought it was unreasonable, that it was too big a risk.
01:07However, I think exactly the opposite. The greatest risk was not to take it, to let things continue without
01:17anything changing, to continue politics as usual.
01:21Let's cross now to France 44's Clévis Casali at the Assemblée Nationale. Clévis, what did the prime minister say in his speech?
01:31Well, he very much tried to defend his policies and said that he was a man who was in charge to reduce deficits, to diminish public spending.
01:44And he addressed several issues, several key points, notably the issue of taxing the wealthier parts of society.
01:52Because, you know, many here in France and the National Assembly, many MPs accused him of seeking austerity only for the middle class
02:02and not enough for the richer parts of society.
02:05Well, he said if you increase the tax for the Arnault family, for instance, the bosses of LVMH, of Vuitton and so on,
02:13well, they're only going to flee the country and not necessarily go to the other part of the world,
02:17but to other European countries. And the same would go for French businesses if you raised more taxes on them.
02:27François Bayrou also saying that there was an urgent need to reduce deficits because we owed this to our youth.
02:35That's what François Bayrou said, because, of course, his argument is that when you have huge deficits,
02:41well, you pass them on to the next generation and you actually only pay the interest of the debt and not the debt itself.
02:50Now, of course, the Prime Minister, after he finished his speech, the floor was then opened to representatives from opposition parties.
02:57What have they been saying, Clobus?
03:01Well, the first group that spoke after François Bayrou were the Socialists and Boris Vallaud.
03:06Boris Vallaud from a party, the Socialist Party, that could send the next Prime Minister.
03:12He could come from those ranks. That's what the Socialists said.
03:16They said, President Macron, we already pick one of us.
03:20But the Socialists also accusing François Bayrou, the Prime Minister, of a moral mistake by leaving,
03:28saying this is not bravery. You're actually running away from difficulties.
03:33And then you had Laurent Vauquiez, who's the boss of the RĂ©publicains, the right-wing party here,
03:39the National Assembly, head of that group, saying that France was caught in deep instability.
03:45We shouldn't add more instability.
03:47He also said that some of the Républicains would vote to defend François Bayrou,
03:52vote for François Bayrou and others again.
03:55So very divided indeed.
03:57And it seems that the survival of the French Prime Minister is only a few matter of hours now.
04:02And, Clovis, who's going to speak next, and what can we expect?
04:10Well, every parliamentary group gets to talk here at the National Assembly
04:15and, of course, put forward their views on the situation, what they think of François Bayrou.
04:21But all eyes are on Emmanuel Macron, of course, the French president,
04:25who will need to find an ex-Prime Minister if François Bayrou loses this vote of confidence.
04:32Emmanuel Macron, who could he choose?
04:33A Socialist?
04:34Possibly also someone from his centrist bloc, such as SĂ©bastien Lecornu, Minister of Armies, Defence Minister here,
04:41and who does get the support of the centrist bloc, possibly of some from the national rally, the French far right.
04:49It's very difficult.
04:50One former minister of Emmanuel Macron was telling us a few minutes ago that she thinks it should be someone who's neutral,
04:58neither left-wing nor right-wing, a technocrat, if you will, to try to help France,
05:02try to get a common manifesto going for the next coming months and get some kind of consensus here at the National Assembly
05:09because the idea, of course, is to be able to pass some laws and pass especially the next budget.
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