France passes budget after months of wrangling and no-confidence motions

The Guardian - World NewsCenter-LeftEN 3 min read 100% complete by Angelique Chrisafis in ParisFebruary 2, 2026 at 08:43 PM

Read Original Article

AI Summary

medium article 3 min

France's government, led by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, has passed its budget after months of political deadlock and surviving multiple no-confidence votes. The budget's passage was secured using special constitutional powers, avoiding a direct parliamentary vote. The Socialist party abstained from voting against the government in exchange for concessions, including suspending pension reforms. The budget aims to reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP by 2026 and includes a €6.5 billion increase in defense spending. This comes after a snap election in June 2024 resulted in a hung parliament, leading to political instability and government collapses. The drawn-out process has unsettled debt markets and concerned European partners.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

Philippe Juvin 30% European Union 40% François Bayrou 40% Michel Barnier 50% National Rally 60% Hervé Saulignac 60% Emmanuel Macron ×270% Socialist party 70% Sébastien Lecornu ×480% France ×390%

Keywords

french budget 100% no-confidence motions 80% political instability 70% pension changes 60% minority government 60% deficit 50% debt markets 50% parliament 50% snap election 40% france 40%

Sentiment Analysis

Negative

Score: -0.30

Source Transparency

Source

The Guardian - World News

Political Lean

Center-Left (-0.40)

Far LeftCenterFar Right

Classification Confidence

90%

Geographic Perspective

France

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis. The political bias score ranges from -1 (far left) to +1 (far right).

Topic Connections

Explore how the topics in this article connect to other news stories

No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.

french budget no-confidence motions political instability pension changes minority government deficit debt markets parliament snap election france

Explore Full Topic Graph