>> it is actually, it doesn't have better chances necessarily been michel barnier because parliaments fragmented in three blocks and president macron can't call new elections until july so we will see this parliament fragmented over the next few months. marine le pen, head of the national rally, still has the upper hand unless francois bayrou manages to secure some sort of pact of nonaggression from the socialist party. that is what he is trying to do on the budget and that is what he is trying to do the pension reform. with it finance minister -- the new, we have someone who is considered quite close to the centerleft, even though we don't have details about the new budget. he was talking about a spirit of responsibility when he met with the parties last week. we know he wants to bring the deficit down to between 5%-5.5% of gdp for this year, which is a target that is lower than he -- then his predecessor. he wants to make about 50 billion euros of savings, which is also lower than the 60 billion euros michel barnier was talking about. we don't have many details on whether there wil

meeting after a deadlock over the country's budget brought down the government of his predecessor, michel barnierrou is expected to push ahead with tax rises and spending cuts amid growing investor concern over the state of france's finances. on thursday, more bad news on the economy as a survey showed that last month france suffered the biggest slump in manufacturing activity in five years. let's bring in tomasz michalski, associate professor of economics at the hec business school in paris. it's a delicate government, its mission is to pass an amendment to the 2025 budget. remind us why that was so important and so controversial. the issue is we didn't have agreement in the parliament is among the main forces over what the budget should look like, whether there should be tax increases or not and whether there should be cuts. the government eventually fell because of the budget and the laws of funding social security. the new government starts with the same copy and it is going to try to find resolution by negotiating with the socialist party or the greens, at least getting neutrality from then

and goes in the direction of eu fiscal rules, but without facing the fate of his predecessor michel barnierwas voted down on the budget. lizzy: we talked about ecb president christine lagarde's new year's message yesterday but i should hate to neglect the snb, it has been cutting rates faster than expected, what comes next? >> the snb had a december surprise of 50 basis point cut, when 25 basis points was expected. they have cut by 125 basis points this year. very low rates. in december, it sounded like they were less worried about upside pressure on the franc, but more worried about domestic weakness. we think there is little policy space left but the snb will have to deliver more cuts. we see one more rate cut in march with risks tilted toward further easing especially if the franc starts to appreciate again. lizzy: maeva cousin, bloomberg's chief trade and climate economist, we thank you for that lookahead for the euro area economy. coming up, why london is the best place to be for that cheeky friday work from home perk. the latest results from our flexible working survey next. do stay w

[applause] all of this is happening because of france's now former prime minister michel barnier, seene about to sing "je suis une petite teapot." barnier had a budget bill that he wanted to pass, but he didn't have the votes for it, so he just bypassed parliament to push it through. so lawmakers voted to oust him. unfortunately, in france, they can't pass laws without the prime minister. and even worse, france's parliament is almost evenly divided between the far right, the left wing, and centrists. and few candidates will please all three factions. meaning, for the first time in history, france is refusing a three-way. [laughter and cheering] it's a silver lining. there's your silver lining. speaking of france, uh, italy. it's over there. there's news out of the vatican from supreme pontiff and kevin james playing pope francis in the blockbuster comedy "pope blart mall pope," pope francis. [laughter] that was really a long walk and worth every second of it. with jackmas upon us, his holiness gave some tips to priests this weekend, saying many times there are long sermons, 20, 30 minu

that is why michel barnier was ousted three months into the job.not manage to find consensus. he tried to turn to the far right to make the compromises. that did not work out. that's why this time around, the economy minister has turned to the socialist, turned to the center left to negotiate there. it looks like the leader of the socialists is a stone's throw away from agreement. the question is who will agree to potentially freeze that pension reform? not cancel it all together, but freeze it for now and find a new way to finance the pension system in france. that way, he would not get support from socialists, but support the no confidence vote. that is what the market is watching. you have to wait and see what the market will say. is it good news or chaos or is the government going to or survive survive survive or is it bad news? we have probably more specific number today over the coming days. we have to wait and see from francois bayrou today. >> it is a tough choice. if you freeze the pension reform to avoid political chaos, that will have fi