French Prime Minister Michel Barnier opened the door to taxing wealthy individuals and large companies in a bid to repair France’s massive budget deficit and reassure international investors, Paralel.Az reports citing Bloomberg.

The new premier said in an interview on France 2 television Sunday that he wanted to avoid raising taxes on the middle class and workers, but emphasized that there needed to be a collective effort to cut spending and to turn around France’s “grave" debt situation.

Parties on the left and right have threatened to bring down the newly formed government, raising the risk of a swift collapse that would further cloud the outlook for France’s stretched public finances. Further complicating the situation, some lawmakers backing the new administration have said that one of their conditions to support Barnier is that he doesn’t boost taxes.

“In the necessary, national effort to repair the situation, I won’t exclude that the richest participate," Barnier said. “In the national effort, some very big companies, multinationals that are working well, can also contribute."