French far-right demands to have input into budget

The leader of France's far-right, Jordan Bardella, has demanded his party's counter-budget ideas be included in plans, piling pressure on Prime Minister Michel Barnier's minority government.

The government unveiled its 2025 budget last week, featuring 60 billion euros ($65.7 billion) in spending cuts and increased taxes on the wealthy and large corporations to address the country's growing fiscal deficit.

The proposed policies face opposition from both left-wing and rightwing parties, increasing the strain on France's fragile centrist alliance, reported Reuters.

Lacking a majority in the French parliament, the government may be unable to push through its bill by conventional means and could face the possibility of a no-confidence vote if it were to attempt to use special constitutional powers to pass the legislation.

Bardella's Rassemblement National, or RN, party holds the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, wielding significant influence.

Barnier's administration would require the RN's backing to survive any potential no-confidence motion presented to legislators.

On Wednesday, RN presented a "counter-budget" as part of the National Assembly committee's examination of Barnier's 2025 finance bill, deeming the government's plan "absolutely unacceptable".

RN claimed its proposed measures would generate additional savings of 15 billion euros in the coming year, through various means, including reducing certain social benefits for non-citizens, and imposing higher taxes on stock buybacks and on the wealthiest individuals.

"If Mr Barnier persists in following (President) Emmanuel Macron's policy, then this government will fall," Bardella told reporters in Paris, demanding an end to what he described as Macron's "catastrophic "fiscal policies.

"Even before the question of a no-confidence vote arises, we intend to get as many of our measures adopted as possible, taking into account the social emergency and the difficulties our fellow citizens have in making ends meet, while at the same time making necessary savings," said Bardella.

Later on Wednesday, members of parliament began debate on Barnier's budget proposals in the finance committee of the National Assembly.

With more than 1,700 amendments already submitted, the legislative process is expected to continue until around mid-December.

Marine Le Pen, who leads RN's lawmakers in the National Assembly, last week accused the executive of "obvious lies" about the budget, in a social media post.

She cited a study endorsed by France's High Council for Public Finances that shows 70 percent of Barnier's budget focuses on raising taxes and only 30 percent on reducing expenditures, the opposite of what the government had pledged, which was to reduce spending by two thirds.