Overview

• Prime Minister François Bayrou will seek a confidence vote on 8 September to secure backing for savings of roughly €43.8–44 billion in the 2026 budget.
• President Emmanuel Macron has offered full support while Renaissance, led in the Assembly by Gabriel Attal, says it will vote as a bloc for the government.
• Rassemblement National, LFI, the Greens, Socialists and Communists have declared they will vote no and have rejected Bayrou’s late bid for dialogue.
• The package targets spending caps outside defense, a freeze of pensions and social benefits, and the scrapping of two public holidays, drawing union calls for a 10 September general strike.
• French bond yields have risen with the spread over German Bunds above 80 basis points and bank shares under pressure, as investors weigh political risk and potential Eurozone spillovers; the turbulence also hangs over Macron’s talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a Franco‑German ministerial in Toulon.