Paris, Feb 2 (EFE).- As of Monday, France has a budget for 2026 to navigate the final stretch of Emmanuel Macron’s second and final presidential term.
This outcome follows Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s government surviving another two no-confidence motions filed by left-wing groups (excluding the Socialists) and Marine Le Pen’s far-right party.
As expected, the National Assembly rejected both no-confidence motions brought against the government for passing the 2026 budget bill without a parliamentary vote.
The motion filed by La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), Les Verts (The Greens), and the Groupe de la Gauche Démocrate et Républicaine (GDR) obtained 260 votes, failing to reach the 289 needed to topple the government. Meanwhile, the motion sponsored by the far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) and its partners garnered only 130 votes.
Lecornu reproached both sides for “sabotaging” and “blocking everything” during the parliamentary budget debates over recent months.
“They will have to answer for this before history,” the prime minister previously stated. Despite his initial promise that he would not do so, he resorted to a constitutional provision to approve the state accounts without a parliamentary vote.
This outcome provides a lifeline for the executive branch and Macron, as it avoids a new snap election, a move demanded by Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing La France Insoumise.
From now on, Lecornu can finally move past the budget issue, which has occupied nearly all his time at Matignon (the government headquarters) since his appointment last September. He can now focus on the upcoming municipal elections in March and attempt to make the year preceding the 2027 presidential elections productive, though his margin for maneuver appears limited without a parliamentary majority.
A public deficit around 5% of GDP Despite promising not to invoke Article 49.3 of the Constitution (which allows budget regulations to pass without a parliamentary vote) Lecornu ultimately had no other choice but to do so in order to provide the country with a state budget for 2026.
The Social Security budget was approved by the Parliament last December, thanks to the Socialists who voted in favor in exchange for the Government suspending the landmark 2023 pension reform until after the 2027 presidential elections.
The state budget, which was definitively adopted on Monday, sets the public deficit at approximately 5% of GDP for 2026, down from 5.4% the previous year. This aligns with France’s commitment to Brussels to bring the deficit below 3% by 2029.
The budget includes several concessions, particularly to the Socialists, such as one-euro meals for students in university cafeterias, an increase in the employment bonus for low-income workers, and a tax on asset-holding companies, which are sometimes accused of being used for tax evasion.
Having completed the primary task assigned by Macron (adopting this year’s accounts) Lecornu is now expected to proceed with a cabinet reshuffle. This follows the departure of Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who is launching a bid for the Mayor of Paris in the municipal elections on March 15 and 22, in which the Prime Minister and a hundred deputies are also running.
Challenges for the final stretch “The Government has only one thing to do: focus on the essentials,” Lecornu declared last Friday during a visit to the Loire Valley region. The visit focused on agriculture, a hot-button issue following recent sector protests against the EU-Mercosur agreement and other matters.
The mobilization of the agricultural sector led Lecornu to announce an emergency agricultural bill for approval before the summer, focusing on three main pillars: livestock predation by wildlife (such as wolves or bears), water management, and production costs.
In parallel, the government will present a plan to address the housing crisis, based on simplifying urban planning regulations and boosting construction.
The revision of the Military Programming Law will be delayed until spring and must re-examine part of the spending planned for the 2026-2030 period, with new priorities focused on ammunition, drones, air defense, and personnel reinforcement.
The government is also working on a reform of social benefits to unify aid and ensure that labor income always exceeds social benefits, though full implementation is not expected before 2030. EFE
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