LIVE. Confidence vote: "The die is cast, we will vote against confidence," says Olivier Faure before his meeting with François Bayrou.

A meeting or a handover? The Prime Minister concludes his series of budget consultations on Thursday, September 4, including a meeting with Socialist Party officials at Matignon, starting at 9 a.m. "The die is cast. Our decision is irrevocable. On Monday, we will vote against the confidence vote," affirmed Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure on RTL. He also announced that he was "at the disposal" of Emmanuel Macron to be appointed Prime Minister and form a new left-wing government, in the event of failure during the confidence vote on September 8. Follow our live broadcast.

No concessions from François Bayrou. The Prime Minister made no concessions to the opposition on Wednesday, five days before the confidence vote that could have resulted in his downfall. He notably dismissed the Socialist Party's proposals, which want to halve the Prime Minister's €44 billion spending target next year.

An omnipresent Prime Minister. Trying to ward off the fate that has been promised to him, François Bayrou has been making numerous media appearances, such as on BFMTV and RMC on Wednesday. Accused of doing things backwards by asking for trust before negotiating with political forces, François Bayrou defended his decision on BFMTV, deeming it "absurd" to "start with the prescription before making the diagnosis." He nevertheless seemed to be preparing for his departure, conceding that the scenario of his fall was "perhaps realistic" but that he refused to be "defeatist."

The LR congress is in turmoil. Just before Monday's confidence vote, the LR party is meeting on the weekend of September 6 and 7 in Port-Marly (Yvelines) for a return to work that was supposed to put them in orbit for the municipal elections and even the presidential election... But that was before François Bayrou completely upended their plans. This end-of-summer congress was preparing to give the image of a reinvigorated and united party, but the decision by François Bayrou, who has several LR ministers in his government, has brought back at a gallop the divisions that have characterized the Republicans in recent years.