“The Prime Minister could ask the presidents of committees of the National Assembly and the Senate to decide on a compromise,” suggests Dominique de Villepin

Budget 2026, war in Ukraine, presidential election 2027… Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is taking advantage of his return to the public debate to deliver his take on the subjects that are making the news in France and around the world, on the set of “4 Vérités”, Tuesday December 2. “We have the feeling that all the debates that have taken place so far are only eternally starting again without anything built appearing”he laments in particular regarding the negotiations for the budget for the year 2026.

This text corresponds to the transcription of part of the interview above. Click on the video to watch the interview in full.

Cyril Adriaens-German: This morning, we are going to talk about the war in Ukraine, the budget for France. But first, a question to start. Do the many viewers of “Télématin” this morning have before them the former Prime Minister or the future candidate for the presidential election?

Dominique de Villepin: Metamorphoses are taking place. It takes time to move from one to the other. But my commitment is total. A commitment for France is not new, it is old. And I feel it as a personal and political duty to step forward on the national scene to defend the values ​​that are mine at a tragic moment, I believe, for the history of our country.

Until the presidential election. Our RTL colleagues said yesterday that things were accelerating on your side with promises of sponsorship and a headquarters?

They are indeed accelerating. Headquarters, correspondents in all departments. It’s about getting into working order. Because I am convinced that the battle of 2027 will undoubtedly be the strongest, most spectacular battle we have known in decades, quite simply because the stakes are immeasurable. It is the destiny of France, it is French sovereignty, it is the freedom of our country and it is the Republic and democracy which are at stake. It deserves a strong, determined and convinced commitment.

We come to this day of mobilization against the government’s draft budget at the call of the CGT, the FSU, and even Solidaires. They say they are worried. Do you share their concern about a budget that they describe as socially unfair?

We are at a moment of truth for the budget. First, will we have a budget before December 31? The PLFSS, the Finance Bill for Social Security, is presented today. Second reading. They have until December 9, and then there remains the state budget which will subsequently be discussed. So, all of this does indeed constitute an important issue. We have the feeling that all the debates that have taken place so far are only eternally starting again without anything built appearing.

Sébastien Lecornu said a compromise was possible. He dramatizes the situation a little by saying that the real danger, basically, would be not having a budget?

He’s right. It is a question of knowing whether the socialists who have agreed to discuss, to make proposals throughout the last few weeks, will vote for this budget or not, or will abstain. We have the feeling that 49.3, which was left aside, would be desired by a certain number of parliamentarians on the benches of the Assembly so as not to bear the responsibility for a budget which, by definition, always causes dissatisfaction. A budget cannot satisfy everyone. And then there is the majority, the central bloc, who also hesitate. It’s a question of what they will do. So, Sébastien Lecornu is doing his job. Well, everyone else on the national benches should do it too. I believe that from a certain moment, from a certain number of hours of debate, it is time to signal the end of recess. And I think that the Prime Minister could ask all the presidents of committees, of the National Assembly and the Senate, to meet and decide on the compromise that must be made. From the beginning, there was some kind of sin that was committed in this matter. The political compromise did not take place. Even before the government was formed, it would have been necessary to know what the political parties that agree to govern agree on and to make a compromise. There were consultations. There was no compromise. There was no vote in the National Assembly of Confidence. However, we must now find this compromise. Sébastien Lecornu is fighting to have this compromise on five major issues today. I think that it is within the framework of the meeting between the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate that this compromise can be found. But it is a principle of political responsibility. The French have the right to expect their elected representatives to take this responsibility to give France a budget. It’s not just about giving France a budget, it’s about writing a trajectory for the next 4-5 years so as to return to the situation of less than 3%.

Abroad, the Russian army is claiming the capture of Pokrovsk, while Donald Trump’s emissaries are meeting Vladimir Putin in Russia today. Is the Russian president ready, and does he have an interest in making a concession?

You know, sometimes images speak louder than words. And we have two images today that are going to collide. Yesterday’s, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Paris, received at the Élysée by President Macron, calling the whole world, all Europeans, the Secretary General of the Union. The image of a Ukrainian president in tragic turmoil, faced with a terrible choice and who demands one thing: peace with dignity. We know what it is to make peace or to have to sign a ceasefire, an armistice under conditions of constraint, that is what we did during the war of 1870. We lost Alsace-Lorraine and another war arose a few decades later. And one more, then another war after. Another image, Steve Witkoff, who is going to meet President Putin in Moscow. And this is not the image of a tragedy, it is the image of a comedy, of a special envoy of the American president who plays Russia’s game.

You don’t trust the Americans at this point?

I don’t know, it’s not a question of trust. We understood that the Americans wanted to twist Ukraine’s arm. We still need to achieve a just peace, a peace which respects international rules and which does not reward Russian aggression, and a peace which is not a peace in the form of a deal to do business. It is about the life of a people. This is about the security of Europe.

Click on the video to watch the interview in full.