French Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou has raised the possibility of holding a national referendum on a comprehensive plan to reduce France\u2019s debt and bring the public deficit below 3 percent of GDP, a threshold set by European fiscal rules.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Journal du Dimanche<\/a> published Saturday, Bayrou said the gravity of the issue and its consequences for the nation\u2019s future warranted a direct consultation with citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the question is serious enough, with far-reaching consequences for the country\u2019s future, that it should be put directly to the people. I do not rule out any possibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Bayrou emphasized that the plan would require efforts from everyone and could only succeed with broad public support.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a comprehensive plan I want to submit. It will demand efforts from everybody, and given its scale, it cannot succeed unless the French people support it. Without that approval, it will not hold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n President decides<\/p>\n Under France\u2019s constitution, only the president can call a referendum<\/a>, but Bayrou said the government could propose the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government proposes, the president decides. But the key issue is whether the French support the reforms,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n Bayrou criticised the piecemeal approach to previous budgets, likening it to \u201cremoving a leaf here, adding one there,\u201d and called for a clear, unified strategy.<\/p>\n (With newswires)<\/p>\n Read more on RFI English<\/a><\/p>\n Read also:
French PM pushes through budget, faces second no-confidence vote<\/a>
France has ‘one of the worst deficits’ in its history, minister says<\/a>
EU hails ‘promising’ initial budget talks with France<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou has raised the possibility of holding a national referendum on a comprehensive plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[36381,2000,299,36,37,36382,36383],"class_list":{"0":"post-73451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-comprehensive-plan","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-francois-bayrou","13":"tag-french-prime-minister","14":"tag-journal-du-dimanche"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114448769596865066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}