Overview
- The Senate approved the measure by 239 votes to 32, with the right and center majority hardening the government’s original text before transmitting it to the Assemblée nationale.
- The bill expands investigative tools, including allowing France Travail to use phone records to verify beneficiaries’ residence, and permits suspending third‑party payment for insured persons convicted of fraud.
- The government initially targeted €1.5 billion in 2026 from stepped-up enforcement, while the executive now signals hopes of raising more than €2 billion across social and fiscal fraud.
- Left-wing groups condemned the approach as stigmatizing the poor and risking civil-liberties overreach; the Socialists largely abstained, and communists and ecologists voted against.
- The text is not yet scheduled in the lower house, where further debate and potential compromises are expected as part of broader budget negotiations.