American Marconi Wireless News - Excessive debt 'life-threatening' for France, PM tells parliament

Defending his decision to call a vote he is widely expected to lose, Bayrou added: "The biggest risk was not to take one, to let things continue without anything changing... and have business as usual".

"France did not have a balanced budget for 51 years," he added, saying his government had put forward a plan so that France could "in a few years time escape the inexorable tide of debt that is submerging it".

"You have the power to overthrow the government" but not "to erase reality," Bayrou told the MPs, who are expected to eject his minority administration in a vote later Monday.

His address, Bayrou's final chance to win lawmakers over, was repeatedly interrupted by heckling from opposition parties in a tense National Assembly chamber.

"This gives me a chance to drink, it's a good idea," quipped Bayrou as he paused to sip water.

He accused the opposition from the far right to the hard left of risking "turmoil" in France by teaming up to unseat his government.

L.Mason--AMWN