French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou passed the first test of his new minority government on Thursday as he survived a vote of no-confidence called by the hard left after the centre-left Socialist Party did not back the motion.

Newly appointed French Prime Minister François Bayrou survived a no-confidence vote on Thursday after the opposition Socialist Party chose not to back the motion. In the surprise turn of events, most Socialist lawmakers decided not to withdraw their confidence in Bayrou's government unlike their left-wing allies,

Only 131 lawmakers voted for motion, far from 289 votes required to adopt it, Socialist Party criticized for not backing motion - Anadolu Ajansı