PARIS
\nFrench Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two confidence motions on Thursday, just days after appointing his new government and making a key political concession to stay in power.
\nThe votes followed Lecornu\u2019s decision Tuesday to back suspending a divisive 2023 pension reform, in a bid to keep his cabinet afloat long enough to pass a much-needed austerity budget by year\u2019s end.
\nThe leftist Socialist (PS) party had threatened to vote to oust the premier if he didn\u2019t move to freeze the reform that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
\nWithout PS support, two separate motions brought on Thursday by the hard-left France Unbowed and far-right National Rally fell short of the votes needed to topple Lecornu.
\nAfter the results, Lecornu said he was ready to \u201cget down to work\u201d on budget negotiations, due to start in parliament next week.
\n\u201cYou can see how serious the situation is\u2026. The debates had to start,\u201d the head of government told BFMTV.
\nBut Socialist leader Olivier Faure warned that his party could still back a move to topple the government.
\n\u201cIf the government does not honour its commitments, particularly regarding the suspension of the pension reform, we would immediately vote against the cabinet,\u201d Faure said on X.
\nFrance, the eurozone\u2019s second-largest economy, has been mired in political paralysis since President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections last year aiming to consolidate his power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two confidence motions on Thursday, just days after appointing his new government and making a key political concession to stay in power. The votes followed Lecornu\u2019s decision Tuesday to back suspending a divisive 2023 pension reform, in a bid to keep his cabinet afloat long enough to pass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-509281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n