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M. Continuo

French PM Valls wins confidence vote in parliament


    PARIS (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Manuel Valls won a parliamentary confidence vote on his reshuffled government on Tuesday, according to the vote tally read out by the parliament speaker.

    The centrist Valls, who earlier said in a policy speech that France's costly social model must be updated but preserved, secured a majority with 269 votes for and 244 against.

    The number of abstentions in his ruling Socialist Party was not immediately available. Earlier, officials said they expected around 30 Socialist backbenchers in the party to abstain in protest at his plans to put through 50 billion euros of public spending taxes in the next three years while cutting taxes for business.

    (Reporting by Emile Picy; writing by Mark John; editing by Nicholas Vinocur)