France on Mondayย adopted a 2026 government budget, followingย months of negotiations and no-confidence motions in Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s minority government.
“France finally has a budget,” Lecornu wrote on X after the vote, hailing a “parliamentary compromise” which “curbs public spending” and “does not hike taxes for households and businesses.”
Lecornu survives challenges left and right
Lecornu faced no-confidence votes from the hard-left and far-right but managed to weather those storms and gotย his budget through, using constitutional powers that circumvented having to put it through a parliamentary vote.
Only 260 from the left-wing groups and 135 from the far-right in the National Assembly voted against Lecornu’s centre-left Cabinet in the two votes, well short of theย 289 votes required to bring down the government in theย 577-seat National Assembly.
Lecornu is the fourth prime minister in two years and has survived eight no-confidence votes initiated by the hard left and the far right.
What is expected in the 2026 budget
According to the text that has now been adopted, the budget deficit is to be reduced to 5% of gross domestic product.
There will be higher taxes on some businesses, including an extra tax on large companiesโ profits, which is expected to bring in around โฌ7.3 billionย ($8.6 billion) in 2026.
The plan also boosts military spending by โฌ6.5 billion, a move the premier last week described as the “heart” of the budget.
Macron has vowed to hike France’s defense spending to counter what he describes as a widening range of threats, from Russia and nuclear proliferation to terrorism and cyberattacks.
In December, French lawmakers adopted the social security budget by a slim margin, which is part of the broader spending plan, but failed to reach consensus on state expenses.
France has been mired in political crises since French President Emmanuel Macron called a vote in 2024 in which he lost parliamentary majority.
Edited by:ย Rana Taha