French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, Reuters/Johanna Geron
France won't change its fiscal policy, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said as his government looked set to face two new no-confidence motions in parliament on Monday after one of the main credit agencies cut its rating of the country's debt.
"We won't raise taxes, we already have too much taxes in France," Attal told franceinfo radio.
Days ahead of a June 9 EU parliamentary election, S&P cut France's long-term sovereign debt rating on Friday to "AA-" from "AA", citing expectations that higher than expected deficits would push up debt in the euro zone's second-biggest economy.
The motions, lodged by the far-right Rassemblement National and far-left LFI opposition groups of lawmakers, have little chance of passing.
However, they come as a reminder to the government of President Emmanuel Macron - who seeks to continue on his reform path despite lacking an absolute majority in parliament - that France's strained state budget remains the Achilles' heel for political stability.
Reporting by Tassilo Hummel
The presidents of Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda will travel to Washington next week to sign a peace deal and meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, three sources told Reuters, as the U.S. tries to broker peace in war-hit eastern Congo and attract Western mining investments to the region.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, a close ally who has headed Ukraine's negotiation team at fraught U.S.-backed peace talks, quit on Friday, hours after anti-corruption agents searched his home.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that outline draft peace proposals discussed by the United States and Ukraine could become the basis of future agreements to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that if not Russia would fight on.
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