French Lawmakers Reject Social Security Budget Bill

FRANCE – On Friday, a French government’s draft social security budget bill in committee was rejected by lawmakers according to local reports.

Despite the removal of several contentious provisions and the adoption of an article suspending the pension reform, lawmakers rejected the proposed social security budget in committee before it heads to the National Assembly on Tuesday.

After voting down the revenue section earlier in the week, lawmakers also rejected the spending portion, thereby dismissing the entire draft budget bill.

Earlier in the day, lawmakers approved the suspension of the country’s contested 2023 pension reform by a vote of 22 -12.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu proposed suspending the reform on Oct. 14 until the next presidential election, pledging no increase in the retirement age before January 2028 – responding to a key demand from the opposition left and avoiding censure from the Socialist Party.

The pension reform, pushed through in 2023 under former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and later defended by successive governments, sought to gradually raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, triggering one of the longest strike waves in decades.

The National Assembly also rejected the adoption of an article establishing the Zucman tax — a proposal to impose a 2% minimum levy on fortunes above €100 million ($116.25 million).

The Socialists have recently been intensifying pressure on Lecornu’s government to ensure the adoption of the Zucman tax and threatening a possible no-confidence motion.

“By your intransigence, I fear you are taking the wrong path. I tell you, Mr. Prime Minister, there has not been, since we have been in this chamber, the slightest compromise,” Socialists’ parliamentary leader Boris Vallaud told Lecornu after the rejection of the tax in the National Assembly.