France’s prime minister faces crunch vote in parliament

Sébastien Lecornu faces a vital test to his premiership over the social security budget bill.Published On 9 Dec 2025France’s National Assembly is set to vote on a major social security budget bill, in a critical test for the embattled Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who has pledged to deliver the country’s 2026 budget before the end of the year.Debate on the legislation began on Tuesday afternoon. Lecornu governs without a majority in parliament, and has sought support from the Socialist Party by offering concessions, including suspending President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reform.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Bulgarian government pulls budget amid fierce protestslist 2 of 3EU proposes using Russian assets, loans to fund $105bn package to Ukrainelist 3 of 3Macron tells Xi that China, France must overcome ‘differences’end of listIf lawmakers reject the plan, France could face another political crisis and a funding gap estimated at 30 billion euros ($35bn) for its healthcare, pension, and welfare systems.“This social security budget bill is not perfect, but it is the best possible,” Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday, warning that failure to pass it would threaten social services, public finances, and the role of parliament.Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on Monday that his party could back the bill after the government agreed to suspend Macron’s 2023 pension reform, which raised the retirement age, until after the 2027 presidential election.But the far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed have both signalled their opposition, along with more moderate right-wing parties.Even government allies, including the centrist Horizons party and conservative Republicans, could abstain or vote against the legislation. They argue that freezing the pension reform and raising taxes to win socialist support undermines earlier commitments.