Overview
- Prime Minister François Bayrou presented orientations for the 2026 budget targeting €43.8 billion in savings to reduce the deficit to 4.6% of GDP.
- The plan freezes state spending at 2025 levels—excluding debt service and planned defence increases—and will cut about 3,000 public-sector jobs through a non-replacement rule.
- Social benefits, pensions and tax brackets will be frozen at 2025 levels throughout 2026 under an “année blanche” measure that forgoes inflation adjustments.
- Structural measures include removing two public holidays, merging or reintegrating unproductive agencies, doubling the drug reimbursement franchise and introducing a solidarity levy on high earners alongside tougher anti-fraud efforts.
- Opposition factions from Rassemblement National to La France Insoumise have threatened motions of censure, jeopardizing the budget’s passage.