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.

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.

France's new prime minister Francois Bayrou is set to give his first policy speech to a divided parliament on Tuesday, hoping to avoid a no-confidence vote that could prolong the country's rumbling political crisis.