Budget compromise needed if PM ousted, says French finance minister

Éric Lombard dismissed concerns of an impending debt crisis, saying: ‘We will take care of the deficits.’ Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

The French finance minister, Éric Lombard, has said the government would have to compromise on plans to cut the budget deficit if the prime minister, François Bayrou, is toppled in a confidence vote next week.

Lombard told the Financial Times that fresh negotiations would require the government to make concessions to the left to reduce the size of the fiscal package if the government falls.