François Bayrou, facing the press before a high-risk return to school

It is a seemingly not-so-tanned François Bayrou who is expected to make his political comeback this Monday, August 25, with a press conference at 4 p.m. As he has widely made known in the media, the Prime Minister has not taken any vacation this summer. Apart from a few weekends in Pau, he has remained at Matignon. "Being there every day, for me, was a sign, an outstretched hand to the French people," he explained Sunday to the daily newspaper Le Parisien .

François Bayrou will kick off a high-risk return to work with this press conference, which is expected to address all the sensitive issues: first and foremost, the calls to shut down the country on September 10, supported by the left. " September 10 must be a day of general blockade, that is to say, as far as salaried workers are concerned, September 10 must be a general strike," declared Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the Insoumis (Rebellious) movement, on Friday in front of several thousand activists gathered in Châteauneuf-sur-Isère (Drôme).

"Everyone has the right to protest, but I do not believe that, faced with such a crisis, the French response can be to block the country," replied François Bayrou in comments reported by La Tribune on Sunday .

The other threat hanging over the Prime Minister's office is, of course, a motion of censure in September, prompted by his budget proposal, which includes nearly €44 billion in savings. "The government must back down, otherwise it will be censured," warned the Socialist Party's first secretary, Olivier Faure. The National Rally, for its part, asserts that it will go on the offensive if its "counter-budget," presented at the start of the school year, is not taken into account by François Bayrou. "We will (then) not be afraid to press the censure button," warned Gironde MP Edwige Diaz on BFMTV on Saturday.

While his days at Matignon are numbered, according to some, the Prime Minister is showing his willingness to stand firm on the scale of the savings to be made. But if the amount of 44 billion euros is "intangible" , "the (budgetary) measures can all be discussed" , the Prime Minister told AFP. "This is also the function of parliamentary debate as well as social negotiations, " he added. "I said that I was ready to hear other proposals (...). But the only thing that is not possible for me is to give up on awareness and the will to escape the infernal trap in which we find ourselves, that of over-indebtedness."

The head of government does not want to let "a conflict between the government and the French people escalate." "It's the opposite of my philosophy, " he said. "So the challenge, for me, is to convey the necessary, inescapable nature of the effort. It's a matter of conviction. I believe that awareness of the difficulty has begun to emerge. But the idea that everyone is concerned is not yet accepted."

On Thursday evening, François Bayrou was received by Emmanuel Macron at Fort de Brégançon (Var). In the columns of Paris Match , the head of state described his prime minister as "lucid" and "courageous . " "He is my friend ," added Emmanuel Macron. "I know him intimately. He is my traveling companion. He has the capacity to lead this government, which is not usual." In passing, the President of the Republic defended his budgetary savings . "I think that the plan he proposed, which we prepared at length together, and which he worked on with his ministers, is a good plan."

After his press conference, the head of government is expected to attend the CFDT (French Trade Union Confederation) back-to-school event on Tuesday, then the MEDEF (Medef) event on Thursday. He is expected to attend the Châlons-en-Champagne fair (Marne) on Friday. His ministers are expected to begin discussions with parliamentary groups "over the next two weeks," according to the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Patrick Mignola.