Prime Minister François Bayrou’s announcements on the 2026 budget have sparked widespread hostility among French politicians, raising the prospect of a vote of no confidence against his government in the coming weeks. In an interview, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Rassemblement National (RN) MPs, announced that her party is ready to bring down the prime minister and prepare for the aftermath.
The day after Bayrou’s press conference, Le Pen gave an interview to the newspaper Le Parisien to explain why her party opposes the budget plan for 2026.
For Le Pen, the plan put forward by Bayrou contains nothing new and positive but merely recycles the old methods that have brought the French state to its current state of bankruptcy over the past 40 years. “The least we can say is that we have not been dazzled by innovation, imagination or a change of direction,” she declared. Backed by figures, she pointed out that structural reforms account for only €1.8 billion in the budget, while various taxes account for €20 billion. “It’s derisory, even shameful,” she said.
According to the RN, two major areas of savings are completely underestimated by the current government: immigration—500,000 legal entries per year—and contributions to the European Union. Other essential areas of government spending are also dramatically neglected: poor management of health and education, and support to renewable energies, which are unproductive and subsidised for purely ideological reasons.
Under these circumstances, one conclusion is clear: “as things stand, it is impossible for the RN not to vote against this government,” Le Pen solemnly declared, given the “unacceptable” proposals that the prime minister intends to impose on the French people.
However, there is no rush. Le Pen and her MPs do not intend to propose a motion of no confidence against Bayrou at this stage and are prepared to grant him a summer truce. But in the autumn, if there is no change in sight, a vote of no confidence will definitely be put forward, warns Marine Le Pen.
If the announced vote of no confidence goes ahead—which is not yet certain, given the doubts raised by the socialists about their willingness to join forces with La France Insoumise and the RN in a joint vote against the government—the question of dissolving the National Assembly and holding new legislative elections is likely to return to the agenda.
Marine Le Pen says she is ready for this eventuality, despite her conviction in the European parliamentary assistants case, which has resulted in her five-year ban from public office, with immediate effect. She will stand for election as a member of parliament, whatever happens, in order to plead her case: “I will defend my candidacy before the authorities responsible for validating it (the administrative court and then the Council of State),” she announced.
The next legal steps are clear in her mind. She will submit what is known as a Priority Preliminary Constitutionality Question (QPC) to the Council of State, arguing that, on March 28th, a few days before her conviction, the Council of State issued a favourable opinion in a similar case concerning the provisional ineligibility of a local elected representative: “We cannot act as if this ruling did not take place,” she said angrily.
The coming weeks will therefore be far from easy for the prime minister, who will have to defend his budget and deal with renewed fighting spirit on the part of the candidate of France’s leading opposition party.
