WEBVTT - French Senator Conway-Mouret Talks Country’s Next Prime Minister

0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:08.520
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Now, your party has

0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:10.880
<v Speaker 1>been very clear that you're willing to lead a government

0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:13.640
<v Speaker 1>on your terms. You've put forward your own budget proposal.

0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.280
<v Speaker 1>But why should Emmanuel Macroon pick somebody from the Socialist

0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:18.400
<v Speaker 1>Party to be prime minister?

0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:23.119
<v Speaker 2>Madel Macon needs stability, he needs He.

0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:27.000
<v Speaker 3>Had another two years to run and I think he

0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.040
<v Speaker 3>cannot afford to be changing his prime ministers every year.

0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.080
<v Speaker 3>It's not good for the economy, it's not good for

0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:35.239
<v Speaker 3>the country.

0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:37.720
<v Speaker 2>We need visibility, we need stability.

0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:42.320
<v Speaker 3>And given the results of the last elections, the Left

0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:46.080
<v Speaker 3>came first, it should have been called to government, it wasn't,

0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.360
<v Speaker 3>and now we have the situation that we're in. That

0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:55.520
<v Speaker 3>is a government which cannot govern because it doesn't have

0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.160
<v Speaker 3>a majority in the Assembly.

0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:59.680
<v Speaker 1>Of course, the Left that won the election is in

0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.680
<v Speaker 1>a lincients that's no longer in existence. The Far Left

0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.920
<v Speaker 1>Party of France on Boud has has pulled apart from

0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.840
<v Speaker 1>your party and the Greens in that alliance. So the

0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.679
<v Speaker 1>numbers don't stack up in exactly the same way. But

0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:16.440
<v Speaker 1>can your party build a working minority in parliament. You know,

0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:18.920
<v Speaker 1>we've already heard doubts from the center right, layer of

0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.720
<v Speaker 1>public any or traditional political rivals through modern French political history,

0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.840
<v Speaker 1>who said that they won't participate in the government that's

0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.520
<v Speaker 1>led by the Socialist Party. Could could the socials do

0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.240
<v Speaker 1>any better when it came to the parliamentary arithmetic?

0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:34.880
<v Speaker 3>And I think we have to draw the lessons from

0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.640
<v Speaker 3>mister Bayohu's methods, which was to just decide on his

0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.960
<v Speaker 3>own believe that he can go to the country by

0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.240
<v Speaker 3>you know, being on television. I think he gave interviews

0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:53.480
<v Speaker 3>to every single newspaper and TV channel and felt that,

0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.840
<v Speaker 3>you know, the people might turn against you know, the

0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.200
<v Speaker 3>members of parliament. But that's not the case. That was

0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:00.760
<v Speaker 3>not the case.

0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.240
<v Speaker 2>So I think we have to change drastically.

0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:09.200
<v Speaker 3>We don't have a tradition of coalitions or compromise or

0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:11.720
<v Speaker 3>but I mean, if we need now.

0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.120
<v Speaker 2>A budget, which is absolutely essential, and in.

0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.400
<v Speaker 3>The Senate we've been preparing for the past few months

0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.079
<v Speaker 3>to discuss it because you know, because of the instability

0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.280
<v Speaker 3>in the National Assembly. In fact, the Senate that has

0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.839
<v Speaker 3>been doing the job for the past few years now

0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.799
<v Speaker 3>doing the job of the Assembly and ourselves. So I mean,

0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.120
<v Speaker 3>we cannot continue like that. So I think the Socialists

0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.720
<v Speaker 3>as anybody would be called by the president.

0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.840
<v Speaker 2>We'll have to seek compromises.

0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.119
<v Speaker 3>I mean, we're looking then it's mathematics, you know, it's

0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:50.520
<v Speaker 3>down to mathematics, and we're looking at every vote. Who

0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.920
<v Speaker 3>in the central block rejected the government, who in the

0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.919
<v Speaker 3>right rejected the government, and see that maybe the figures

0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:03.160
<v Speaker 3>may add up to have that majority, that the that

0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:04.520
<v Speaker 3>we absolutely need. Now.

0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.600
<v Speaker 1>We spoke to the vice president of MADIF earlier on

0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.280
<v Speaker 1>the program who said that a socialist government and the

0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:15.040
<v Speaker 1>current current budget proposal would be a catastrophe. Is a

0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.160
<v Speaker 1>socialist budget plan going to be bad for the French economy?

0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:23.280
<v Speaker 3>Well, I was at the MEDIEV we know to last

0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:28.000
<v Speaker 3>week and the MEDEV has also it's a tradition in

0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:32.360
<v Speaker 3>France always been right wing, believed that only the right

0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.520
<v Speaker 3>wing can lead the country. And then we see where

0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.000
<v Speaker 3>the country, the state of the country today and the economy,

0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.680
<v Speaker 3>and in fact, privately, when I speak to them and

0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:48.440
<v Speaker 3>remind them of Fansolando indeed Frans terms, they agree that

0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:53.960
<v Speaker 3>in fact, you know, the economy was balanced ASIL alone

0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:59.520
<v Speaker 3>actually reduced the deficit of France drastically from five percent

0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:03.240
<v Speaker 3>to but three percent in five years and it didn't

0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.080
<v Speaker 3>run again, and that was that was it.

0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:06.720
<v Speaker 1>But no, the.

0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.600
<v Speaker 3>Socialists in power have a tradition of keeping the books

0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:11.200
<v Speaker 3>really well.

0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:11.839
<v Speaker 2>Now.

0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.960
<v Speaker 3>Of course, you know, the big industrial groups and so

0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.200
<v Speaker 3>on do not are not left wing, none of them.

0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.880
<v Speaker 2>And of course we'll have the kind of rejection, but.

0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.880
<v Speaker 3>Individually they you know, they agree that you know, it

0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:28.880
<v Speaker 3>could it could work.

0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:29.320
<v Speaker 2>Now.

0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.680
<v Speaker 3>The one thing about the socialist program is that there

0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.960
<v Speaker 3>will be a reintroduction of taxes on very high revenues,

0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.400
<v Speaker 3>and of course they're not happy with that because it

0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.160
<v Speaker 3>will just you know, individually.

0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.279
<v Speaker 2>And personally touch them.

0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.040
<v Speaker 3>So of course everybody's is happy to make the livings

0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:51.480
<v Speaker 3>as long as others make them.

0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:53.400
<v Speaker 1>I just want to ask you briefly on your foreign

0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.880
<v Speaker 1>affairs brief as well. I mean, does those political instability

0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.440
<v Speaker 1>harm France's possession on the international stage?

0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:04.200
<v Speaker 2>But we can of course, I think the president's image.

0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:11.640
<v Speaker 3>Whiles as you can see, extremely active especially in Europe

0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.560
<v Speaker 3>on the war in Ukraine and trying to you know,

0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.839
<v Speaker 3>keep what France has always done, you know, be good

0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:24.000
<v Speaker 3>at negotiations and trying to bring peace and defend it.

0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.040
<v Speaker 3>Of course, this is not good for the image. Now,

0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.680
<v Speaker 3>I just hope that the budget and every program is

0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.960
<v Speaker 3>actually defending the defense budget, which is the only one

0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:38.240
<v Speaker 3>on the increase where audio others, of course, have been

0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:43.000
<v Speaker 3>asked to make drastic savings, particularly in what mister Bayo,

0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:48.080
<v Speaker 3>who was presenting with forty four billions savings overall, spare

0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:49.320
<v Speaker 3>the defense budget