Overview

• François Bayrou has given himself two months to refine measures designed to deliver €43.8 billion in savings for the 2026 budget
• The blueprint freezes social benefits and income-tax brackets for a year, merges or abolishes agencies, and bars replacement of one in three retiring civil servants from 2027
• Pierre Moscovici of the Cour des Comptes endorsed the plan as consistent with the audit court’s own recommendations and urged a deficit reduction below 3% of GDP by 2029
• Opposition parties have threatened motions of censure, with figures like Bernard Cazeneuve condemning the plan as ideological recycling of past measures
• The Banque de France cautioned that hedge funds’ rapid sovereign-debt trades and potential rating-agency downgrades are keeping market confidence in France’s debt trajectory under scrutiny