2026 Budget: "If nothing is conceded, I don't see how François Bayrou can escape censure," says François Hollande

François Hollande said on France Inter on Monday that it was time for the government to "open negotiations with the trade unions."

"If nothing is conceded" by the government on the draft budget for 2026, "I don't see how François Bayrou can escape censure," said Socialist MP and former President François Hollande on France Inter on Monday, August 25. Prime Minister François Bayrou will give a press conference at 4 p.m. on Monday, August 25, for the political season. He has been threatened with censure by the left and the National Rally since the presentation of his draft budget with 44 billion euros in savings.

For François Hollande, it is time "to open negotiations with the trade unions" and "a dialogue with the political forces represented in the National Assembly" on this budget, which he considers "unfair and unbalanced." "He cannot stick to the text he presented in July, so there must be progress," believes the former president.

"I can't imagine that it will be the same text in a month or two months. If it has to be the same text, then I don't see how François Bayrou can escape censure," the MP emphasizes. "If nothing has been conceded, if public holidays are still threatened, if there is no rectification in terms of wealth taxation, if businesses are not called upon to contribute, if there is not a better distribution between the effort required in terms of expenditure and the effort that must be made in terms of additional revenue from the most privileged, I don't see how he can escape this result."

However, he believes that the timetable proposed by La France Insoumise is not the right one. LFI plans to submit its motion of censure on September 23, before the budget debate: "This is not the right procedure. The right procedure would be to open negotiations," François Hollande recommends.

"I'm speaking on a personal level; I don't see how it would be possible to say 'let's dialogue' and 'let's censor' at the same time. We have to be logical. I'm not saying that censorship isn't conceivable at some point. It's likely today. But if there is to be a dialogue, it must be pursued to the end."

François Hollande

to France Inter

François Hollande is also not on the same page as LFI and a part of the left regarding the "Block Everything" movement, on September 10th. A movement born on social networks in recent months against the government's policy. François Hollande says he "hears" an "exasperation in the country" but "when I don't know the initiators, when I don't know the direction of a movement, and when I don't understand its demands, I look, I don't condemn a priori, but I can't associate myself with what I don't understand." For him, "it's up to the union organizations to set the movements, the demands and even the dates of mobilization."