France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has used special constitutional powers to force part of his 2026 budget bill through the deeply divided lower house of parliament, without a vote. It brings France closer to concluding its budget drama, but obstacles remain.
Lecornu, who heads up a fragile minority government, appears to have won a stay of execution.
He invoked article 49.3 of the Constitution on Tuesday to force the finance side of the budget bill through the lower house without a vote. The move came after he failed to win over enough lawmakers to get the legislation voted on in the usual way.
In October, the prime minister promised the opposition that he would not resort to using the 49.3 clause – known colloquially as the "nuclear legislative weapon" of parliament – but would instead look to compromise.
That, however, didn't work and discussions with opposition parties have been in deadlock for the last three months.
"Things are now at an impasse. The text can no longer be voted on. And we believe France must have a budget," the prime minister told the National Assembly.
The use of article 49.3 also automatically allows MPs to block the bill's adoption by tabling a vote of no confidence – which must be signed by at least 10 percent of members (58 MPs) and filed within 24 hours.
The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) has already filed a motion of no confidence and the far-right National Rally (RN) party is expected to follow suit.
If a majority of MPs vote in favour of the no confidence motion, which is likely to take place on Friday, the government falls and the budget is scrapped. If the motion fails, the government survives and the budget passes.
France's article 49.3 a handy constitutional tool to bypass parliament
Concessions to Socialists
Both the conservative Republicans and the Socialists have said they will not vote against the government.
Despite having just 66 out of the total of 577 MPs, the Socialists have turned out to be the key swing voting block, with the prime minister and his government appearing to have won their backing by making a number of concessions in the budget.
These include unfreezing government spending outside defence and eliminating tax breaks for retirees. Low-income workers’ take-home pay will be boosted via a benefit scheme, with some 3 million households receiving an additional average of €50 per month, at a cost of around €700m in 2026.
A scheme to refurbish energy-inefficient housing (MaPrime Rénov) is being maintained, and the Green Fund, aimed at local authorities’ ecological transition projects, will receive an extra €200m.
The government is also expanding subsidised meals to all university students, regardless of income.
French PM Lecornu survives no confidence votes after pension U-turn
Tax hikes
The most contentious U-turn on the budget concerns tax hikes, which are needed to finance these social measures.
Under pressure from the Socialists, the government has agreed to extend a temporary tax on France’s biggest companies, despite earlier promises to ditch it, then halve it.
The full tax is to be maintained and will apply to around 300 companies (rather than around 450 last year) with a turnover of at least €1.5bn. It is expected to bring in €7.3bn in revenue this year, compared to €8bn last year.
The government has also backtracked on its promise to cut so-called production taxes (CVAE), which are levied on the "value" companies create in France, rather than their profit or revenue. Slashing the tax would have handed back €1.3bn to French businesses to boost competitivity.
Patrick Martin, the head of the Medef business leaders' union, has slammed the budget. In an interview with business daily Les Echos he said the state was "betraying itself" by renewing the temporary tax and reversing the reduction on CVAE.
Entrepreneurs were being "systematically used as the adjustment variable", and short-term decisions favouring households were at the expense of competitiveness and attractiveness, he said.
However, in an open letter to business leaders Lecornu insisted that a "new political crisis would weaken our country and weigh even more heavily on the economy and jobs".
Insurance boss breaks ranks with French business elite over taxing the rich
What happens now?
Lecornu is expected to survive Friday's no confidence vote, but that's not the end of the road.
The spending side of the budget bill still has to be agreed, meaning he will have to repeat the use of the 49.3 measure, thereby coming up against further no confidence votes.
The entire finance bill must then go through the Senate and then return to the National Assembly to be finally adopted, once more most probably via article 49.3.
This is expected to be in the first half of February, a government official told Le Monde.
So far, France has been operating on a rollover budget from 2025 to keep paying everything from civil servant salaries to pensions and defence costs.
The government has committed to reducing the fiscal deficit to a maximum of 5 percent of its projected economic output for the year, compared to 5.4 percent at the end of 2025.
Restoring public finances is a "priority on which there can be no compromise" Lecornu has said.
Deficit to deadlock: why France is borrowing €310bn without a budget
The prime minister is in a weak position since Macron’s centrist alliance no longer has a majority in the assembly, following the president's decision to call snap elections in June 2024.
Two prime ministers, Michel Barnier and François Bayrou, have already been toppled in just over a year – both victims of budget discord.
