France’s newly reshuffled Socialist government faces growing unrest from within its own party and from former coalition allies ahead of a confidence vote tomorrow which will test France’s ability to push ahead on reforms.

President Francois Hollande, whose administration has failed to lower high unemployment in Europe’s second-biggest economy after two years in power, is staking his credibility on a “responsibility pact” to cut companies’ payroll taxes if they boost hiring in return.

New Prime Minister Manuel Valls, put in charge after the Socialists suffered a rout in local elections last week, has been tasked with helming the reform despite resistance from the Left and after the Greens declined posts in his government in protest at his centrist stances.

There will be no blank cheque (for the government)

Now around one hundred Socialist lawmakers have signed a manifesto calling for a change of policy ahead of tomorrow’s vote, leaving open the possibility of abstaining unless Valls pledges to do more to fight German-led demands for budgetary rigour across Europe and to re-focus on growth and jobs.

“The local elections were a rebuke of (the current) economic policy and the ruling majority’s disarray,” Socialist deputy Pouria Amirshahi said.

Amirshahi was one of the first to begin drumming up support for a new “contract” with Valls’ government.

“There will be no blank cheque (for the government).”

Hollande originally intended to tie the vote of confidence to a subsequent vote on the responsibility pact.

However, that would have raised the risk of rejection in parliament due to opposition from the far-Left and the Greens. Instead, Tuesday’s vote will be on the general policy statement Valls is due to make in parliament the same day.

The Socialists retain a slim majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, even without support from the Greens: they hold 291 seats out of a total of 577. The Greens hold 17 seats and the centre-left Radical Party also holds 17 seats.

The government’s ability to win the vote depends on limiting abstentions or opposition from within the Socialists’ own ranks. If the Greens and the Radicals vote with Valls, there would need to be over 30 dissenting votes from Socialists to torpedo Valls’ government and trigger a dissolution of Parliament.