Confronting the cost of living crisis will be a top priority for the French minority government, the country's Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Wednesday, as she urged the opposition to work with her to avoid policy gridlock. 

Steps to tackle the issue will include boosting pensions, capping rent increases and prolonging limits on gas and electricity prices, which are set to be included in a bill later this week.

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Other priorities include more police on the streets, deepening EU integration and tackling climate change. 

There are also plans to nationalize the debt-laden utility EDF which allow the government to carry out "ambitious and essential projects" for France's energy future, Borne says. 

President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance lost its absolute majority in legislative elections in June, despite having won a second term in April. Without pacts with other parties Borne now faces the prospect of bill-by-bill negotiations in parliament. While discussing the cost of living crisis, she urged the opposition to work with her to aid with vote reforms. 

But after the speech, far-right leader Marine Le Pen told Borne that she had been right not seek a confidence vote "because we have no trust in your government." 

Left-wing parties said that the government's reluctance to hold a confidence vote was undemocratic. They tabled a no-confidence motion, which will be voted on in the coming days. 

This is considered by experts as a safer option for Borne, as a no-confidence motion requires an absolute majority to precipitate a government's fall. Barring any major surprise, this will not happen after the conservative Les Republicains and the National Rally said that they would not back it.