We must stop political games and vote on a budget, pleads the head of the CPME

"The priority for the coming days and weeks is the budget," Mr. Reza-Tofighi said on BFM Business, believing that to deprive oneself of it "just for two words would be to put France in danger."

He was referring to the expression of migratory "submersion" used on Monday by Prime Minister François Bayrou, which strained negotiations between the government and the Socialist Party on the draft budget, increasing the risk of a new censure.

"Today, we are undergoing six months of dissolution, of censorship", with, as a consequence of this "political uncertainty", business failures at their highest level since the pre-Covid period, "68.000 over the whole of 2024".

"MaPrimeRénov' is blocked, sectors are blocked because there is no budget, and the wait-and-see attitude is causing unemployment that will increase," he noted: "we have 117.000 more unemployed in the fourth quarter compared to the third. That's the equivalent of the city of Besançon," noted Mr. Reza-Tofighi.

"So, I hear that words can cause a government to fall, but behind that, the reality is more unemployed people and businesses that are falling," he summed up.

Mr. Reza-Tofighi refrained from commenting on Mr. Bayrou's statement, while noting that "there are sectors of activity under pressure that require foreign labor," such as catering, construction, or personal services.

Several sectoral employers' organisations (hotels and restaurants, construction, etc.) have warned that their companies would have difficulty operating without foreign workers, in response to the tougher conditions for regularising immigrants announced by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.

According to Mr. Reza-Tofighi, employers' organizations must "go into battle, carry the messages."

"Everyone defends their companies. But in the end, we defend the French economy," he said, hoping that employers would display "shared positions" in the debate opening between social partners on pensions.