Sébastien Lecornu minimized this Thursday the first votes contrary to his draft budget during the debates in the National Assembly, which started this week, estimating that the political forces were still “testing themselves” and that a compromise remained possible “in December”. “We must not (...) worry the French, nor the economic world, nor the financial markets,” said the Prime Minister during a press briefing following a meeting on agriculture.
“The first readings of economic and financial texts in October and November have always been first readings in which political parties make commitments, defend sensitivities, test themselves,” he added. “First reading, we can count ourselves. In December, we will have to decide on a compromise that works,” summarized Sébastien Lecornu.
In this regard, he hoped that the government would do its “job of explaining to the French, but also to the economic” and “financial” world, in “a moment in which interest rates are higher”, “how our parliamentary system works”. “We never saw a compromise appear in October and November. You know this, since last year, it was in December and January that these compromises appeared,” he recalled.
On Monday, one of the reference rating agencies, Fitch Ratings, delivered a harsh analysis of the situation in the country. At the end of August, the agency maintained France's rating at A+ with a stable outlook. But Fitch is now considering “a downgrade of the rating” of France in the event of a “further substantial increase in public debt”. The agency is concerned about the “increasing difficulties encountered in reducing the deficit and stabilizing the public debt” which it attributes in part to “sluggish growth”.
Precisely, this Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised downwards the growth forecast for France. The institution announces 0.4% for France. She explains this deterioration by the impact of climatic events, heat waves and fires during the summer, but also by significant political and budgetary uncertainty.
For 2027, the IMF expects growth of 0.7%. The French government, for its part, constructed its 2027 finance bill (PLF) with a growth hypothesis of 1%. In this context, the public accounts recovery plan of more than 40 billion euros included in the budget could prove insufficient to reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP next year - the government's current objective.
It's no. This Thursday, at the end of the morning, the deputies rejected the capping of a tax reduction for retirees. The National Assembly adopted, by 116 votes to 30, identical amendments deleting article 3 of the text, despite opposition from the government. This article provided for lowering from approximately 4,400 to 3,000 euros the ceiling of the 10% reduction applicable to retirement pensions for the calculation of income tax.
This was one of the main sources of savings put forward by the government, in the finance bill for 2027, for 1.4 billion euros.
The president of the employers' organization of Entrepreneurs (formerly CPME) Amir Reza-Tofighi assured Thursday that he would stay in France in the event of victory for rebellious France in the presidential election. “I am very proud to be French, I will fight every day in this country to ensure that our economy develops, to defend businesses and I will be there tomorrow whatever happens,” he declared on Radio Classique, affirming that he would fight the “dangerous ideas that some might carry”. This statement comes a few days after Medef President Patrick Martin assured that an LFI victory in 2027 would make certain bosses, including himself, “flee” or that he would in any case be demotivated to continue running his company in France.
More than 400 million euros from the 2026 budget, notably dedicated to renewable energies, were reallocated for aid to farmers announced in September and fuel aid, according to a decree published in the Official Journal on Thursday. This decree plans to cancel for 2026, 406 million euros in commitment authorizations, a term designating the maximum expenditure “that can be incurred” during one year for a specific action (the equivalent of a purchase order), and 416 million euros in payment credits, i.e. the sum disbursed each year by program to pay the invoices.
These cancellations are made “mainly on the precautionary reserve” of the “public energy service” program, details a report on the decree. This program's mission is notably to support the development of renewable electrical energies or to implement a inclusive energy policy in order to protect consumers in situations of energy poverty.
The executive intends to integrate a certain number of amendments in support of the profession in the copy of the 2027 budget. An “agricultural recovery plan”, according to the minister, of which she detailed a certain number of concrete measures: adapting livestock buildings so that the animals do not suffocate from the heat; improve water management, a “precious resource”; finally, facilitate access to credit for farmers, with the announcement of a package of 2 billion euros in zero-interest loans.
This recovery plan must complement the emergency measures announced in September to support farms hit by drought. The objective being to “give farmers the certainty that the State and the French are at their side,” said the minister this Thursday morning on franceinfo. But for that, “we need a budget for agriculture,” she warned, as the budgetary marathon continues today in the National Assembly.
The deputies approved on Wednesday evening in the hemicycle the French participation in the EU budget provided for in the finance bill (PLF) for 2027, despite the votes against from LFI and the RN. But at the end of the session they partially unraveled article 2 aimed in particular at bringing the taxation of daily allowances closer to that of income tax. The article providing for a levy of 30.9 billion euros for the benefit of the EU next year was adopted by 111 votes to 93.
