At a glance: the key points from French PM's interview on budget and immigration
- French prime minister François Bayrou confirmed no household tax increases in 2025, but potential rises in 2026.
- Plans to cut teaching jobs and remove a bank holiday were scrapped, aligning with Socialist Party wishes.
- Bayrou ruled out a referendum on immigration but supports stricter deportation policies and tougher citizenship rules in Mayotte.
French prime minister François Bayrou took part in a nearly two-hour long interview last night (January 27) with French media outlet LCI.
Here are the main points of his responses, which focused heavily on the upcoming budget, as well as immigration and France’s social security system.
No household tax increases… in 2025
Taxes for most households will not increase in 2025, he said.
This includes tax increases on the wealthiest households (around 20,000 - 30,000 in France) but will only impact income earned in 2025.
Income earned in 2024 cannot be affected by a budget passed after December 31.
Read more: French PM confirms ‘minimum tax’ will apply for high earners: who is impacted?
However, the prime minister did not rule out increases across the board in a 2026 budget, which will “tackle public policy from a blank slate.”
Budget on track, agreement with socialists
Mr Bayrou said the Socialist Party has obtained “some answers” from him regarding the upcoming 2025 budget and for the time being will not impede it.
“Everyone must be certain that they are being heard and that the aspirations of some become compatible with those of others,” he added.
The Socialist Party, which was part of the bloc which ousted the former prime minister Michel Barnier, did not vote against the government in a motion de censure after Mr Bayrou gave his policy outlook in the Assemblée nationale earlier this month.
Read more: French prime minister pledges voting and pension reform in key policy speech
Previously-agreed portions of the former 2025 budget relating to the Ministries of the Interior, Justice, and Armed Forces will remain the same, allowing them to be quickly passed through France’s political chambers.
Teacher job-cut and bank holiday removal plans axed
Plans by Mr Bayrou’s predecessor Michel Barnier to cut thousands of teaching jobs as part of the 2025 budget have been definitively scrapped.
The 4,000 or so jobs set to be axed will remain, which was a key position of the Socialist Party.
However, Mr Bayrou said these positions were struggling to be filled: “There still has to be candidates for the competitive examination (concours) to become teachers. For years, there haven't been enough people to fill the posts.”
Another proposal that Mr Bayrou is set to axe is the argument over removing a bank holiday from the French calendar.
The idea – also supported by Mr Barnier – would have seen the holiday become a working day but with workers not being remunerated and their salaries instead being put towards a special social security fund, as is the case currently with the Pentecost holiday in France.
Read more: Ministers propose people work seven hours unpaid to clear French deficit
“Work must be paid for… work should not be free,” the prime minister said. He noted, however, how such a plan has been approved by the French Senate in their readings of the upcoming 2025 budget, so removing this will need to be discussed in parliament.
No referendum on immigration, but tough stance
He ruled out a national referendum on changes to immigration, a position favoured by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
However, he said the issue of the number of non-French nationals in the country was “one of the most important issues facing [France].”
“Foreign contributions are positive for a people provided that they do not exceed a certain proportion… The meeting of cultures is positive, but as soon as you have the impression of submersion, there is rejection. In France, we're getting close to that,” he said.
Mr Bayrou supports upcoming plans to toughen citizenship rules for babies born in Mayotte via the droit du sol rules.
New legislation will make it harder for babies born in the overseas department to non-French citizens to receive citizenship, with their parents having to be legal residents of France for an extended period of time.
However, he does not support bringing in the same rules to those born under similar circumstances elsewhere in France.
A vote to toughen these rules in Mayotte will be held in February in the Assemblée nationale.
‘Tougher’ stance on deporting migrants
He said he was also fully supportive of a stricter position on deporting non-French citizens who have received an order to quit France (obligation de quitter le territoire français - OQTF).
These controversial orders made headlines last autumn when a teenage girl was murdered in a Parisian park by a Moroccan immigrant who had already been imprisoned for sexual offences and was subject to an OQTF due to his previous sentencing.
Morocco had taken too long to fill the paperwork accepting his deportation back to the country, meaning he could no longer be held in detention in France.
“We can't do it [send people on an OQTF back without the paperwork being completed], because the countries of origin don't want to take back their nationals. We have to organise pressure, overt or covert, to get them to take their nationals back,” the prime minister said.
Pensions and a ‘social demographic crisis’
Talks over a renegotiation of the controversial 2023 pension reforms were launched in January and will continue.
However, “working more is a necessity” for many French people as the population demographics shift and the nation gets older, Mr Bayrou said.
Social spending makes up a third of French GDP – almost €890 billion in 2023, states Le Figaro – which the prime minister called “the most generous social pact in the world.”
A low-birth rate is threatening this, he said.
Read more: How do new French life expectancy stats compare with US and UK?
“The number of children in the country is falling. Our social contract is based on ‘all for one’. This can only work if there are enough ‘all’. The country's demographic crisis is threatening our social model. It is a cruel and tragic reality,” he said.
Other talking points
The prime minister also said he planned to improve bureaucracy by streamlining the number of public service agencies. This is a point he announced in his key policy speech earlier this month.
Despite being against a referendum on immigration specifically, he supports proposals by President Macron to organise referendums on other key matters.
Schools should focus more on the ‘written word’ as opposed to images, with students being required to write in all lessons.
There will be ‘two distinct texts’ on euthanasia/assisted suicide in France that will be debated by politicians. One will focus on palliative care for those with a long-term illness, and the other on the assisted suicide as a separate matter.
