PARIS — French Prime Minister François Bayrou warned voters that pulling the plug on his government would plunge the country into crisis.

In his first public remarks since announcing on Monday a surprise, high-stakes confidence vote on Sept. 8, Bayrou said the French people have 13 days to decide “whether they stand on the side of chaos or on the side of conscience and responsibility.”

“We will not run away from our responsibilities,” Bayrou said in remarks at an event organized by one of France’s biggest trade unions, the CFDT.

Bayrou has been trying to get lawmakers on board with an unpopular €43.8 billion budget squeeze aimed at reining in France’s budget deficit.

By calling a confidence vote on Sept. 8 — two days before a planned nationwide shutdown and two weeks before MPs were expected to return to work — Bayrou is gambling that lawmakers can at least agree that France’s dire financial situation needs rectifying, but the odds appear stacked against the longtime centrist.

Leaders from the far-left France Unbowed, the center-left Socialists and the far-right National Rally, including Marine Le Pen, have already vowed to support toppling the government.