French Budget Talks in Turmoil as Socialists Withdraw Over PM’s Immigration Remarks

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Jan. 15, 2025. Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

French budget talks were thrown into doubt on Wednesday after Socialist Party officials suspended negotiations in protest over remarks about immigration made by Prime Minister François Bayrou.

In a television interview with the French channel LCI on Monday, Bayrou said that the country is at risk of feeling overwhelmed by immigration.

“I think that the meeting of cultures is positive. But as soon as you have the feeling of a submersion, of no longer recognizing your country, of no longer recognizing the ways of life or culture, from that moment on, you have rejection,” he said.

Bayrou is navigating a divided parliament, which has made it increasingly difficult for the government to pass the 2025 budget. France is planning 60 billion euros ($65.68 billion) worth of spending cuts as well as tax hikes in a bid to reduce its spiraling fiscal deficit.

The country’s debt is projected to soar to above 3 trillion euros ($3.17 trillion) by 2025, with public debt hovering at around 110 percent of GDP.

“We suspended our negotiations because the words from the Prime Minister were not dignified,” Philippe Brun, a Socialist Party lawmaker involved in the budget talks, said in an interview with Sud Radio on Wednesday.

Bayrou repeated his immigration comments in the French Senate on Jan. 29, with Socialist parliamentary leader Boris Vallaud accusing him of embracing far-right rhetoric.

“If you govern with the prejudices of the far-right, we will end up being governed by the far-right, and you will have been its accomplice,” Vallaud said.

“It’s not the words ... that are shocking but the reality,” Bayrou responded. “An entire community of French departments is facing waves of illegal immigration, reaching 25 percent of the population. And it is a despair, who can say that this is not true?”

Without the support of the Socialists, Bayrou may not have had enough support to advance his budget.

Earlier in January, Budget Minister Amelie de Montchalin said the new government was hoping to get the bill passed by both houses by the end of the month.

Centrist politician Bayrou was named the new French prime minister in December 2024.

French lawmakers from all sides of the political spectrum voted on Dec. 5, 2024, to remove veteran conservative Michel Barnier from the post, signaling deepening divisions within the French Parliament.

Bayrou survived a vote of no confidence on Jan. 16, which was called by La France Insoumise (LFI), the Greens, and the Communists.

In December 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron said his decision to call early parliamentary elections in June 2024 had created more instability than peace.

Lawmaker Maud Bregeon from Renaissance, the party founded by Macron in 2016, wrote on social media platform X that Bayrou “has the courage to name what the French feel.”

“The dictates of political correctness and moral accusations regarding migration provide no answers and have become unbearable for many of our fellow citizens,” she said.

Lawmaker Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Rally parliamentary group, wrote on X that Bayrou’s comments warranted action.

“On immigration, the prime minister must be aware that what is expected of him is action. For the moment, we have a lot of observations and very little action,” she said.

Reuters contributed to this report.