France's Prime Minister Sébastian Lecornu was on Saturday confronting the prospect of more political wrangling after MPs rejected a wealth tax. The decision could bring down his government if a levy on the super-rich is not in the budget.
Lecornu's administration is under pressure to pass a spending bill by the end of the year to rein in France's deficit and soaring debt,.
But efforts have been hampered by a deadlock in the National Assembly.
A left-wing bloc made up of the Socialist, Communist, Green parties and the hard-left France Unbowed had proposed a minimum two-percent tax on wealth over €100 million, dubbed the "Zucman tax" after the French economist Gabriel Zucman who devised it.
But the proposal was rejected on Friday night by 228 votes to 172.
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After the decision, the Socialist leader, Olivier Faure, said there was no possibility of voting on the budget in its current form.
However he urged Lecornu and MPs to keep seeking a compromise – or face censure and the threat of new legislative elections.
"If you think that at some point, we will agree to vote for a budget that is completely regressive, then you are mistaken," he said.
"None of us here on the left ... are afraid of the ballot box. And so, we will go to the polls if we have to."
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Lecornu expressed his profound disagreement with the wealth-tax proposal, insisting there was no such thing as a "miracle tax".
After the vote, he called for a change of method and asked his ministers to bring together party representatives to find a path forward.
MPs also voted down a "Zucman-light" proposal from the Socialists.
This version called for a minimum three-percent levy on assets of €10 million and above, excluding family and "innovative" businesses in a concession to the government.
The Socialists have said they will continue pushing for alternative tax justice proposals in the budget.
Lecornu, the country's third prime minister in a little over a year, has promised to get a budget through parliament.
His predecessors, François Bayrou, and Michel Barnier, were ousted after MPs rejected the cost-cutting measures in their versions.
Lecornu, with the support of the Socialists, survived a confidence vote earlier this month by agreeing to suspend an unpopular pensions reform.
But in return, the Socialists have demanded the tax on the uber-wealthy, without which they have threatened to topple his government.
Zucman says a tax on the mega-wealthy could raise around €20 billion per year from1,800 households.
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The far right and Lecornu's government are against taxing professional assets, which this levy would target.
France has been mired in political deadlock since President Emmanuel Macron last year called for snap parliamentary elections, hoping to cement his power.
Instead, his centrist bloc lost its majority and the far right gained seats, and the parliament ended up divided.
(With newswires)
