So France's new prime minister, Francois Bayrou, is trying another kind of balancing act to make sure the country's government doesn’ t collapse again.Storm clouds have hovered over French politics for some time now but it was in the summer of last year that the thunder really began to roll.

PARIS - French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was set to survive on Thursday a vote of no-confidence called by the hard left after the centre-left Socialist Party said it would not back the motion. Read more at straitstimes.

PARIS - French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou passed the first test of his new minority government on Thursday as he survived a vote of no-confidence called by the hard left after the centre-left Socialist Party did not back the motion.

Both the far-right National Rally and center-left Socialist Party declined to back a no-confidence vote in new French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou. But France's parliament remains bitterly divided.

The challenge in the Assemblée Nationale came after François Bayrou's statement this week on his government policy agenda. The no-confidence motion, brought by the leftist opposition, failed to gain support from the far right.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Tuesday told lawmakers that France was drowning in debt, but pledged to listen to ideas to renegotiate a landmark 2023 pension reform in a bid to win support from the left to pass the 2025 budget.