PARIS: French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Monday made another major concession to Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, dropping planned cuts to medication reimbursements in a last-minute bid to get his 2025 budget bill over the line. It was not immediately clear if that would be enough to save his fragile coalition from being toppled this week, with an RN spokesman saying that there were other key demands ahead of a crunch parliamentary vote.
"It's a good thing, undoubtedly," Philippe Ballard said of Barnier's latest move to yield to his party's demands. "But there are other" demands, he said, referring to the fact that Marine Le Pen's party wants Barnier to raise pensions in line with inflation. RN leaders were meeting ahead of the parliament's vote.
Barnier's struggles to get the 2025 budget through a deeply divided parliament threaten to plunge the euro zone's second-biggest economy into its second political crisis in six months, underlining the instability that has taken hold in capitals across the EU. — Reuters
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