ISTANBUL

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou warned lawmakers on Monday that France’s mounting debt is putting the nation’s sovereignty and future generations at risk.

Addressing the National Assembly before a key confidence vote, Bayrou said the country faces not a political debate but “a historical question.”

He said France has not had a balanced budget for 51 years and has fallen into a cycle of overspending.

"Every year, spending grows, deficits repeat, and debt accumulates. Every euro of overspending becomes one more euro of debt," Bayrou said, noting that 65% of the debt is held by foreign creditors.

Calling the debt burden an “invisible, silent, unbearable hemorrhage,” Bayrou warned that debt servicing costs are overtaking the country’s economic gains.

“Our country believes it is getting richer, but every year it becomes poorer,” he declared.

Bayrou also set out a goal to reach the 3% EU deficit threshold by 2029.

"If debt stops growing, the creativity and effort of the French will once again bring the country afloat," he added.

He linked the fiscal crisis to wider structural challenges, citing falling productivity, an education system in decline, housing shortages, a strained social model, security concerns, and migration pressures.

“Submission to debt is like submission by military force. In both cases, we lose our freedom,” Bayrou said, warning that young people risk becoming a “sacrificed generation” burdened with trillions in liabilities accumulated not for investment but for daily expenses.

He rejected narratives blaming migrants, saying: “We have two obligations: to control and master arrivals, and to integrate those who are and will be here.”

Concluding his appeal, Bayrou underlined: “There is only one path for France—the path of shared truth and courage chosen together.”

Parties present their stances at parliament

Following Bayrou, party representatives also addressed the National Assembly, voicing their support or criticism toward the government.

During her speech, National Rally's leader Marine Le Pen called the likely fall of Bayrou's government “the end of the agony of a ghost government," judging the premier as “responsible for the debts” and for “France’s general collapse.”

"A great country like France cannot live with a paper government, especially in a troubled and dangerous world, a world undergoing technological revolutions and historic geopolitical shifts that demand immediate decisions," Le Pen said, calling for fresh elections and emphasizing the need to "let the people decide."

She also urged Macron to dissolve parliament, underlining: “Without dissolution, Emmanuel Macron is blocking the country.”

"It is Emmanuel Macron who bears the greatest responsibility. We will not vote confidence in President Macron. We will not vote confidence in President Macron because France no longer has the luxury of waiting, because the time for half-measures is over, because the French want a break with the past, not a reprieve," Eric Ciotti, leader of the UDR party, also said.

He noted that the only solution to the "regime crisis caused by Emmanuel Macron" is either "dissolution or resignation."

Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, head of the Renaissance party, underscored that bringing down a government would come at a cost for France.

"No deputy in my group will vote to give a blank check to the government or to approve the budget, but the deputies in my group will vote for stability," he said.

Mathilde Panot, leader of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) group, criticized the government's stance on Israel's genocide in Gaza, underlining that it met no obstacles or sanctions from France.

"The ruin you have produced is not only economic; it is also moral," she said.

Panot urged that, aside from the government, they should overthrow a world founded on "inhumanity, social brutality, and the absence of solidarity."

"The President does not wish to change policy, so we will have to change the President," she added.

France is facing mounting political tensions as Bayrou prepares for the crucial confidence vote in the National Assembly.

Bayrou, who unveiled a 2026 budget framework in July, is seeking support for a plan to save nearly €44 billion ($51 billion) as part of efforts to reduce France’s soaring public debt, now at 113% of its GDP.

France also has one of the EU's largest budget deficits at 5.8%.

Warning that the country is “on the brink of over-indebtedness,” Bayrou earlier urged lawmakers to choose “responsibility over chaos.”

Opposition parties across the spectrum, from the far-left LFI to the far-right National Rally (RN), as well as the Socialists, have vowed to vote against the government.

Budget negotiations have been a major source of tension in French politics.

The failure to reach an agreement on the 2025 budget last year led to the collapse of the Michel Barnier government in December, after left-wing and far-right parties united behind a no-confidence motion.