France’s social security budget for 2026 is to be voted on in the National Assembly in Paris on Tuesday.
With no clear majority in parliament, if the bill fails it would leave a €30 billion (about $35 billion) gap in funding for health care, pensions and welfare, with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s position in question.
Lecornu has been struggling to get a budget through parliament since taking office in September, but concessions he has made on a cost-cutting program backed by President Emmanuel Macron to appease center-left Socialists have alienated centrist and conservative allies.
Pension age change banned in latest bill
The main change to the social security budget is the increase in the retirement age that President Macron has been demanding for years.
Previous proposal to increase retirement age from 62 to 64 – Reforms first unveiled in 2023 would still leave France among the most liberal countries in Europe or the G7 – has been stopped again.
The change would be put on hold until 2027, after the next presidential election, meaning Macron would fail to meet his goal of reforming France’s crippling pension system in both of his terms.
Asked whether the plan would be passed before the parliamentary debate and subsequent vote, which began at 4 p.m. local time (1500 UTC/GMT), Budget Minister Emilie de Montchalin told BFM TV: “I can’t say.”
He also said the government could promise additional money to fund hospitals in hopes of winning over reticent political parties such as the Green Party Bloc.
Minority centrist government depends on party support
Both the populist right and left parties, two of the largest parties in the divided parliament, are likely to oppose the spending plans.
That would give Macron loyalist Lecornu the vast majority of remaining groups in parliament to secure passage of the bill.
But his efforts to bring on board France’s traditional center-left powerhouse Socialists risk alienating the center-right Republicans and centrist parties like Horizon, whose members say Lecornu has compromised too much as France struggles to rein in its debts.
Government aims to cut France’s budget deficit – already one of the largest in Europe – Up to 5% of GDP next year. By comparison, Germany’s was 2.8% in 2024.
But doing so has been challenging for years, and has become nearly impossible since snap elections called by Macron in 2024 have further weakened the position of the president and his allies.
Lecornu is the third Prime Minister after that election. He has been on this post since September. And he has already resigned once, just weeks after taking the job, only for Macron to ask him to return and try to get a budget through with the clock ticking before emergency stopgap spending measures would be needed.
If you include Lecornu, Macron’s last four prime ministers each lasted less than a year. Those before him could not even manage the two years.
Edited by: Jennifer Cimino Gonzalez