French Socialist Party raises threat of backing no-confidence vote against government

PARIS (Reuters) - The French Socialist Party, whose support Francois Bayrou's minority government has been trying to secure for weeks, on Tuesday raised the threat of backing a no-confidence vote against the government later this week.

The Socialists, who voted down previous budget proposals in December in conjunction with far-right lawmakers and thereby precipitated the fall of Michel Barnier's government, have made concessions on the 2023 pension reform a condition for support.

Earlier in the day, during a speech to Parliament, Bayrou opened the door to renegotiating the disputed pension reform but Faure said this was not good enough.

"We will back a no-confidence vote, unless we get a clear response to our demands," Faure told the TF1 evening news bulletin on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)