On January 14, 2025, François Bayrou delivered his general policy speech to the National Assembly. Here is what you should remember.
Prime Minister François Bayrou delivered his general policy speech on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, a few weeks after forming his government. Here is a summary of this hour and a half speech to the lower house of Parliament.
Public deficit
France is aiming for a public deficit of 5.4% of its GDP in 2025, higher than the previous government's projection (5%), and is lowering its growth forecast to 0.9% this year compared to 1.1% before Michel Barnier was overthrown, the new Prime Minister François Bayrou announced on Tuesday.
“Growth forecasts, particularly following the crisis arising from the vote on the motion of censure (of the Barnier government, editor's note) have all been revised downwards,” he said during his general policy statement to the Assembly. “Significant savings will be proposed for the future,” he added.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou assured Tuesday that he intends to revise upwards the country's public deficit target to 5.4% of GDP in 2025, compared to around 5% for his predecessor's government, he assured during a general policy speech.
“The government has therefore decided to revise its growth forecast for 2025, it was 1.1% before the censure (of the previous government, editor's note), we set it at 0.9%, in line with the forecasts of the Banque de France. It will be proposed to set the public deficit target for 2025 at 5.4% of GDP”, he said.
Reform of pensions
Prime Minister François Bayrou indicated on Tuesday that he was putting the pension reform “back on track”, by bringing together the social partners “as of Friday”, and assuring that there were “no taboos, not even the retirement age”,during his general policy statement.
Before the National Assembly, the head of government explained that he was going to “ask the Court of Auditors for a flash mission of a few weeks” with a view to establishing “a report” based on “indisputable figures”, noting that “a window of opportunity is opening” by the autumn. The “avenues” identified by the social partners “all deserve to be explored” , added Mr. Bayrou, announcing the creation of a “permanent delegation” and specifying that, in the absence of an agreement, the current reform will apply.
The French Prime Minister, the centrist François Bayrou, assured on Tuesday that his government would put “back on track” the unpopular 2023 pension reform, during a general policy speech before Parliament.
“I therefore choose to put this subject back on the table, with the social partners, for a short time, and under transparent conditions,” he said, adding that there would be “no taboos, not even the retirement age”, set at 64 during the reform, President Emmanuel Macron's flagship project, which had provoked strong popular discontent.
2025 Budget
“There “We must pull ourselves together to adopt without delay the two budgets of the State and Social Security”, which fell with the censure on December 4 of the previous government, affirmed François Bayrou Tuesday in his general policy statement.
“We are all paying a high price for this budgetary precariousness, businesses, investors, families, taxpayers, borrowers”, the Prime Minister stressed, also inviting political forces to “put in place the conditions for stability that requires reconciliation, which the country needs so much and which its citizens continue to demand”.
Debt, everyone responsible ?
“All government parties, without exception, have a responsibility for the situation (of indebtedness) created in recent decades”, affirmed François Bayrou on Tuesday in his policy statement general.
“This debt is a sword of Damocles hanging over our country and our social model,” added the Prime Minister, accusing “all the opposition parties”to “constantly ask for additional spending”, which produces a “fatal tango that has led us to the edge of the precipice” .
“Regain stability”
“The injunction that the country assigns us”, is “regain stability”, declared François Bayrou on Tuesday in his general policy statement before the National Assembly, which had censured his predecessor after only three months.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“At the risk of surprising you, I believe that this situation (instability, editor's note) is an asset. Because when everything is going well, we rest on our laurels. And when everything seems to be going badly, we are forced to be courageous”, added the Prime Minister, emphasizing “the need, the requirement, the injunction that the country assigns us (to) find stability”. “All French people need it. They understand that we do not agree on everything, but they urge us, I believe, to join forces to force the issues.”
State Reform
Prime Minister François Bayrou announced on Tuesday the creation of a special fund “entirely dedicated to state reform”, estimating that the “1,000 agencies or organs of the state” currently constitute “a labyrinth that a rigorous country can hardly escape satisfy”.
This fund will be financed by assets “in particular real estate, which belong to the public authorities so as to be able to invest, for example in the deployment of artificial intelligence in our public services”, he declared in his general policy statement.
“Bank of Democracy”
François Bayrou relaunched on Tuesday the idea of creating a “bank of democracy” so that political parties can obtain funding from “public bodies” and not just private ones.
Hoping that parties “can obtain funding without having to resort to circumvention strategies”, the Prime Minister said he wanted “the creation of a bank of democracy so that the financing of political parties and campaigns no longer depends on the choices of private banks, but can eventually and as a recourse, be the work of public bodies placed under the control of Parliament”.
“Money should not rule consciences and money should not take precedence over the free will of citizens”, he argued in his general policy statement.
Medical costs
Considered in the fall by Michel Barnier and then abandoned under pressure from the RN, “the measure to delist certain medications and medical consultations” “will not be resumed”, Prime Minister François Bayrou announced Tuesday.
Contrary to these savings avenues, “the government will propose a significant increase” in health spending in order to “improve the working conditions of caregivers and protect the most vulnerable”, affirmed Mr. Bayrou in his general policy statement before the National Assembly, confirming in passing “full reimbursement of wheelchairs from 2025”, a promise made by Emmanuel Macron almost two years ago.
Method of legislative voting
François Bayrou proposed on Tuesday to move forward “on the reform of the legislative voting method”, with “a principle of proportional representation”, stressing that it must “be rooted in the territories”, during his general policy statement before the National Assembly.
This reform, “probably”, “will force us to raise at the same time the question of the simultaneous exercise of local and national responsibility”, added the Prime Minister, provoking the protest of many deputies on the left, more than ten years after the abolition of the accumulation of mandates during the presidency of François Hollande.
The grievances of the Yellow Vests
François Bayrou wished on Tuesday “to resume the study of the books of grievances” written at the end of the debates that followed the demonstrations of the “yellow vests”, a movement “neglected” according to him.
The “yellow vests” have “denounced the state they felt of our society”, “the division of the country between those who count and those who do not count”, but “the French promise assumes that we can break down the wall that exists between us”, the Prime Minister affirmed in his general policy statement. “This is the reason why we will have to resume the study of the books of grievances”, so that“expressed in our society […] are the often most unexpressed expectations, which are those of social circles excluded from power”.
Overseas
François Bayrou announced Tuesday in his general policy statement that he would invite in January “the political forces” of New Caledonia to open negotiations in Paris “which should conclude by the end of this quarter”.
The adoption by the National Assembly of a highly controversial reform of the Caledonian electorate had triggered massive riots in May, who “have plunged this territory into a deep quagmire”, recalled the Prime Minister, hoping for the resumption of the “political process” under the leadership of Overseas Minister Manuel Valls.
The question of Corsica
Prime Minister François Bayrou promised Tuesday in his general policy statement to “respect” the timetable “to achieve a constitutional change by the end of 2025” for the Corsica.
The so-called Beauvau process, aimed at granting greater autonomy to Corsica, was initiated in 2022 by Gérald Darmanin, then Minister of the Interior, at the request of Emmanuel Macron. But the dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024 abruptly ended the discussions, leaving many Corsican elected officials fearing the abandonment of the project.