PARIS - French Finance Minister Antoine Armand said on Saturday that the 2025 budget could still be improved, but stopped short of giving ground in a standoff with the far right over new concessions.
Marine Le Pen's far right National Rally , whose tacit support Barnier needs to survive a likely no confidence motion, has given him until Monday to accede to her demands to make further changes to the budget. On Thursday, Barnier already dropped plans to raise electricity taxes in the budget as the RN had demanded, but it is keeping pressure on the government to scrap plans to postpone an increase in some pensions to save money.