Overview
- The National Assembly’s near-unanimous overnight vote against the revenue bill (404 against, 1 for) sank the entire 2026 budget before the spending section was examined.
- The rejection sends the text to the Senate in its original form, scrapping Assembly-added measures such as the multinationals tax and restoring items like the income tax bracket freeze.
- Senate examination starts this week, with Les Républicains signaling major rewrites and targeted savings of more than €30 billion while declaring the current draft “not votable.”
- Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s team says a parliamentary compromise remains possible and, for now, rules out using article 49.3 or ordonnances to force the budget through.
- A “loi spéciale” to temporarily reconduct the 2025 budget is widely discussed—backed by LR’s Bruno Retailleau and deemed most probable by Eric Coquerel—while Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin warns it is a last-resort tool that means no new savings or investments and risks economic strain if no deal is reached.