The French government, which missed a deadline this week to set a blueprint to lower its debt and deficit, is struggling to meet fiscal requirements set by the E.U.

France's budgetary situation is "very serious", Prime Minister Michel Barnier told AFP on Wednesday, saying more information was needed to gauge the "precise reality" of French public finances. "I am discovering that the country's budgetary situation is very serious,

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across France, responding to a call from a far-left party leader who criticized as a power grab the president’s appointment of a new prime minister, Michel Barnier.

After 50 days of a caretaker government, President Emmanuel Macron has finally named former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as prime minister, tasked "with forming a unifying government to serve the country and the French people".

The French president named Michel Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, nearly two months after elections that kept the far right from power but resulted in political deadlock.

Thousands of people took to the streets across France on Saturday to protest President Emmanuel Macron's decision to appoint centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister with left-wing parties accusing him of stealing legislative elections.

France's budgetary situation is "very serious", Prime Minister Michel Barnier told AFP on Wednesday, saying more information was needed to gauge the "precise reality" of French public finances."I am discovering that the country's budgetary situation is very serious,

France has a "very serious" budgetary deficit, Prime Minister Michael Barnier said, weeks after France was placed on a formal procedure for violating European Union budgetary rules. Barnier, who was appointed to lead the French government on September 6 after months of political deadlock,