French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu scored a key political victory Tuesday after lawmakers approved next year’s social security budget by just 13 votes.
The bill still faces a vote in the French Senate, but its passage in the more powerful National Assembly is a positive sign for the future of Lecornu’s minority government and to financial markets worried about France’s ability to rein in its spiraling budget deficit.
After the vote, Lecornu — whose two immediate predecessors failed to pass social security budgets — praised lawmakers for showing “responsibility” in adopting the legislation.
“Making compromises is not a slogan, it means moving forward for the common good,” he said in a post on X.
The vote was expected to come down to the wire, as many feared that the government had lost the support of key centrists and the conservatives who felt the text did not do enough to bring down France’s budget deficit, which is projected to come in at an eye-watering 5.4 percent of gross domestic product this year.
But in the end, all 91 lawmakers belonging to French President Emmanuel Macron’s party Renaissance voted for the bill, while a majority of MPs from the conservative Les Républicains either abstained or voted in favor.
The vote on Tuesday also exposed a rift between the government and Edouard Philippe, Macron’s first prime minister and a candidate in the 2027 presidential election, who felt the the bill will not do enough to bring down the deficit. Despite being historic Macron allies, most lawmakers from Philippe’s small center-right party followed his call to abstain.
Unsurprisingly, France’s political extremes — the far-right National Rally and the far-left France Unbowed — came out against the social security bill.
Lecornu’s victory Tuesday appears to validate, at least temporarily, his strategy of trying to seek a compromise in France’s hung parliament. The PM in October ruled out using a constitutional backdoor to push through legislation without a vote to ensure his political survival, instead letting parliamentary debates drag on chaotically for weeks in the hopes that lawmakers could strike a deal.
Had the legislation been shot down, it might have cost Lecornu his job. President Emmanuel Macron would have then faced the unsavory options of either hunting for a sixth prime minister in less than two years or calling a snap election that could strengthen the hand of the far-right National Rally.
Lecornu will have little time to celebrate as there still remains the matter of the state budget, a separate piece of legislation where compromise has proved arguably more contentious.
Just one lawmaker in the 577-strong National Assembly backed the budget during an earlier vote on part of the state budget.
“It will be difficult. Possibly even more than these last couple of weeks,” Lecornu wrote on X.
This story has been updated
French PM scores big win as social security budget clears major hurdle
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