"Everyone must take a small step": the right cautious after Bayrou's budget announcements

The mention? Insufficient. The day after François Bayrou unveiled the austerity plan for the 2026 budget, the right wing judges the government's copy to be half-hearted. While LR president Bruno Retailleau did not immediately react to the Prime Minister's announcements, the response came on Wednesday, July 16, from Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the group in the Assembly. Gone, in his vocabulary, are the insurmountable "red lines," those stinging measures making the vote on the next finance bill impossible. To the "extremely serious situation of our country's finances," the Haute-Loire MP now opposes the fine role of the ally of the responsible presidential camp. The right wing will not add its voice to the "sum of irresponsible reactions of all those who reject everything en bloc," he predicts.