French PM set to survive no-confidence vote

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne faces her first no-confidence vote in parliament on Monday sponsored by the hard-left opposition.

The motion from the France Unbowed (LFI) party will be discussed from 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) but is not expected to pass.

Borne is the head of a minority government, making her vulnerable to such votes, but other opposition parties have ruled out backing the initiative to bring her down.

She was named by President Emmanuel Macron in May, a month before parliamentary elections in which the ruling centrist party lost its majority.

"We will never accept that someone holds power in this country with their only legitimacy being that they were named by the president," senior LFI lawmaker Alexis Corbiere told the Public Senat channel on Monday.

Ruling party figure Aurore Berge saw a "virtue" in the vote, which would clarify the positions of all the parties in the newly formed parliament.

LFI and its allies were "clearly a minority in the National Assembly, a minority that wants to block things, a minority that shouts, that wants to stop the prime minister from expressing herself, but a minority," she said on the CNews channel.

Borne, 61, has made clear she intends to rely on the votes of opposition parties to pass legislation, with the right-wing Republicans party seen as crucial to her future.

Support from the 62 Republicans MPs would be enough for the government to pass laws.

The Republicans and Marine Le Pen's far-right party, the National Rally, have said they will not support the left-wing no-confidence motion on Monday.