Paris (EFE).- French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Wednesday the suspension of the pension reform in November, demanded by the socialists, as he expects two no-confidence motions in the National Assembly.
During appearances at the government control session in the National Assembly and the Senate, Lecornu announced that he would present the reform as an amendment to the Social Security budget in November, which will remain in effect until January 2028.
The move aims to leave the debate over pensions to be decided in the 2027 presidential elections.
Despite the urgency to approve the 2026 budget before the end of 2025, uncertainty still surrounds the future of Lecornu’s government.
With the postponement, Lecornu hopes to avoid Thursday’s no-confidence votes presented by France Unbowed (LFI), the National Rally (RN), and Éric Ciotti’s UDR.
The motion presented by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s LFI could succeed depending on the socialists’ support, as it would only require the support of an additional 20 deputies to be approved.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right party said they will vote for it, but an absolute majority of 289 votes would be needed to bring down the government. For now, it seems that 270 MPs are in favour of censure.
«We are presenting proposals for debate,» defended the Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, on Wednesday in the National Assembly, criticizing the motions to be voted on Thursday.
«If they censure us, there will be no government and no debate,» she added.
«The only debate we will have will be about economic uncertainty and disorder, and the turmoil we would plunge the country into if we didn’t vote on the budget,» she claimed.
Barring an unforeseen twist, Lecornu should avoid falling thanks to his concessions to the Socialists (suspension of pension reform, a tax on the wealthy, and renunciation of governing by decree).
However, his team knows that this is not a blank cheque and that time is running out, as the Socialist Party has not ruled out overthrowing him this autumn if their conditions are not met or if he does not secure further concessions during the budget debate.
In November, the amendment for pension suspension
«The government must present an amendment to the Social Security Financing Bill by November,» the Prime Minister announced during the government control session in the National Assembly.
The aforementioned would allow them to «advance with the greatest possible speed, meeting all deadlines,» he said.
It will be Parliament that decides, though he warned that «a suspension cannot be voted without the corresponding income» to finance the additional shortfall in the pension system, estimated at 400 million euros in 2026 and 1.8 billion euros in 2027.
Budget countdown
Parliament has 50 days to examine the Social Security budget bill, which includes the suspension of the pension reform, and 70 days for the 2026 state budget.
This could be challenging as it must be approved by a majority consensus in a fragmented parliament, and it is no longer possible to use the constitutional article that allows laws to be adopted without a vote, as Lecornu’s government renounced it.
In addition to the possibility of an avalanche of amendments, another obstacle is that processing the suspension of the pension reform as an amendment to the social security budgets could be compromised by other contributions to the text that the left could not possibly support.
As a last resort, Lecornu could opt for a special law, which would enable him to continue collecting existing taxes while awaiting the approval, which already occurred in 2024, following the successful no-confidence motion against Michel Barnier’s government in December. EFE
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