“I do not rule out any possibility,” Bayrou added.
The French government is looking to reduce the 2026 budget by €40 billion, largely through spending cuts. Bayrou said those savings should not come by imposing new taxes but via “greater efficiency” and “simplification” of public spending.
“It’s a comprehensive plan I want to submit. It will demand efforts from everybody, and given its scale, it cannot succeed unless the French people support it,” Bayrou said.
He ruled out “targeted sacrifices” — such as a previously mooted “tax raid” on pensioners. His budget would “be a substantial one … based on a shared effort, carried out collectively by the French people,” the prime minister said.
“I refuse to scapegoat any particular category of French people, retirees no more than anyone else,” he said.
Under France’s constitution, only the president can call a referendum. But Bayrou said the government could propose the idea.
