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00:00The new French Prime Minister Michel Barnier this afternoon gave his first major speech
00:04since taking on the job. At the National Assembly he focused on the economy with both tax rises and
00:12spending cuts on the cards now as France seeks to narrow its budget deficit. Now Barnier also
00:18faced quite a bit of discontent in the room with left-wing MPs waving their voting cards to imply
00:25his appointment was not in line with democratic norms.
00:29Here's a little of Michel Barnier speaking a short while ago.
00:35Collectively we are walking a tightrope. We have a lot to do. If we don't manage to do everything
00:41in all areas we have to do things well to meet the expectations of the French people.
00:47We have to do it with the very little we have at our disposal.
00:52Let's speak to Clovis Casali who's our reporter at the National Assembly where Barnier has been
00:57speaking this afternoon. Clovis good to talk to you. Look first of all no surprise really that
01:03in quite a bit of that speech Barnier was focusing on the critical state of France's finances.
01:11Very revealing to hear Michel Barnier the new French Prime Minister starting his
01:17much awaited speech with a reference to his hero General de Gaulle who at the time of this quote
01:23was head of the French resistance writing to one of his friends we've got to do a lot with a little
01:29and Michel Barnier says that it's exactly the situation he's in today. There will not be more
01:35spending but better spending with Michel Barnier's Prime Minister and he said they would that him and
01:42his government would try to reduce deficits as much as possible because forecasts show that
01:48public deficits will be six percent of France's GDP next year and Michel Barnier's aim is to
01:56reduce it to five percent in 2025 and then back to the tolerated under the European rules three
02:03percent in 2029. So priority is to reduce deficits. How will France do that? How will Michel Barnier do
02:12that? Well firstly he says the first remedy is to reduce hugely public spending but he says he will
02:20spare the less privileged of course here in France when it comes to education and health. Also what
02:27does Michel Barnier says or say also he says he wants more efficiency in public spending and by
02:33that he means also fighting fraud and then the French Prime Minister wants to ask companies
02:40big companies making huge profits to contribute more to help the nation in these difficult times.
02:48Clearly France's finances in a critical state and that's the number one priority for Michel Barnier.
02:56And Clovis a bit later on in that speech he emphasised the need for dialogue with the French
03:02people and for compromise and not a particularly easy task it has to be said given the divisions
03:09evident within parliament. And Michel Barnier knows very well that he needs the support or at
03:18least the support on some laws of opposition parties notably the very powerful French far
03:24right at the National Assembly and the powerful also a left-wing bloc. He knows it will be difficult
03:29and not surprising throughout this speech some MPs were shouting at him interrupting him or at least
03:36trying to disrupt his speech saying that he was lying at times when he was saying that he would
03:42defend the environment. Lying also accusing him of lying when it came to defending the less
03:49privileged. The left-wing MPs some left-wing MPs at the National Assembly waving their voting cards
03:57showing the Prime Minister of that disapproval saying that he's giving in to the French far
04:03right and that's a prime concern for many on the left here at the National Assembly. MPs telling us
04:09that Michel Barnier needs to please the far right and it's absolutely unacceptable. Take his Interior
04:15Minister Bruno Roteu saying that immigration wasn't a chance wasn't helping France. Those were
04:22strong words those were highly controversial words and they've angered many MPs here left-wing but
04:28also centrist MPs. In other words for Michel Barnier what will be about of course getting some
04:33kind of compromise negotiation dialogue winning over opponents here at the National Assembly but
04:39it will be a very difficult task. Will his government survive months maybe years? Difficult
04:46to say what we do know is that the left-wing is going to vote in favor of a vote of no confidence
04:51against this government to basically force this government to leave and then the French far right
04:57is ready any minute now to also join when that's the question. In a week, two weeks, three months
05:04who knows but the French far right's more powerful than ever. Clovis Casale for us there live at
05:10Parliament thanks very much indeed.