Overview
- The PLFSS was approved 247–232, marking the first budget text adopted without article 49.3 since 2022 after a deal built on Socialist support and Ecologist abstentions, with parts of LR and Horizons withholding backing.
- The law pauses the 2023 pension reform until January 2028, limits initial and renewed sick‑leave prescriptions, introduces a one‑off tax on complementary health insurers of about €1 billion, adds a birth leave, and launches a ‘Réseau France Santé’ while dropping pension and minima freezes and the plan to double medical co‑pays.
- The 2026 social‑security deficit is projected at €19.4 billion, cushioned by €4.5 billion in state transfers that tighten the arithmetic for the separate state budget.
- A joint committee of seven deputies and seven senators convenes on December 19 to seek a compromise on the state budget, with the government preparing a special law if talks fail and signaling readiness to consult the Conseil d’État on such a fallback.
- Ecologists say they will vote against the state budget, the PS is pressing for additional revenues, the Senate right resists new taxes, unions protested sick‑leave limits, the Mutualité warns the insurer levy will hit premiums, and LFI plans a Constitutional Council referral on the PLFSS.