The gong has sounded. The deputies were unable to reach the end of the first reading of the 2026 Social Security budget bill. Wednesday 12 November at midnight, the constitutional deadline allowing the government to send the text to the Senate expired, without a vote on the entire copy. Intended to reduce the Social Security deficit to 17.5 billion euros, the PLFSS will arrive at the Luxembourg Palace with a bill of several billion euros, announced its rapporteur, LR MP Thibault Bazin.
“Prolonging our debate (…) can only be done to the detriment of the parliamentary process and the conditions of the Senate examination”, argued the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Laurent Panifous, shortly after midnight, while almost 200 amendments still had to be vetted. A “49.3 undercover”, to LFI deputy president Mathilde Panot, whose group announced a new censure motion before Christmas. The National Rally Group chaired by Marine Le Pen looks on “a step toward implementing a Social Security budget based on regulations.”
As a major step in this Social Security budget, the 2023 pension reform has been postponed until 2028, as promised by Sébastien Lecornu’s government to avoid censorship from socialists. Concretely, the generation born in 1964 will leave at the age of 62 years 9 months (like the previous generation), not the 63 years determined by the reform. These policyholders will get 170 quarters of the contribution instead of 171.
The suspension was also extended to long-term careers and people born in the first quarter of 1965, at the request of the left.. This allowed the government to avoid voting against most environmental lawmakers, but not the communists, nor the rebels, who saw the move as a delay rather than a suspension.
The total cost is 300 million in 2026 and 1.9 billion in 2027 and can be financed by increasing the asset contribution by 1.4 points, as suggested by the Minister of Labour, Jean-Pierre Farandou. The assembly separately approved measures supporting pensions for women who have had one or more children.
The socialists achieved victory by adopting one of their flagship proposals, which was also supported by the communists and the LFI: an increase in CSG, one of the sources of social protection financing, charged specifically on capital income (dividends, employee savings, housing savings plans, etc.). This fund should generate 2.8 billion euros by 2026 and be used in particular to finance the suspension of pension reform. Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin said she wanted to revisit the measure during a parliamentary meeting.
A win for the right this time: The Assembly adopted a Republican amendment granting reduced overtime contributions to companies with more than 250 employees. Finally, deputies late Wednesday approved the creation of a new parental leave, allowing parents each to take up to two additional months to welcome their child. An action carried out by the government, but the amount is still kept secret.
Just before the debate broke down, deputies agreed to an extension of one billion euros in national health insurance spending goals, announced by the government, including 850 million euros for hospitals and clinics, without having time to adopt the article.
Many measures were removed, particularly by the opposition, which described the text, like the unions, as “museum of horrors”. The Assembly particularly opposed freezing pensions and social benefits (family allowance, RSA, etc.), which are usually indexed to inflation. A measure that Sébastien Lecornu himself returned to in his negotiations with the socialists, while this article, which has caused protests from the left to the RN through the LR, was favored by the government to finance the suspension of the pension reform.
Also missing is the expansion of the scope of medical franchises to dental consultations and medical equipment (prostheses, glasses, dressings, etc.). The government is also considering doubling the remaining patient payments, but this provision must be ratified by decree. Also removed was the surcharge for mutual insurance companies, which was another way to finance the government’s suspension of planned pension reforms, which many feared would impact policyholders.
Journal of health systems in crisis
The Assembly also voted against an article aimed at limiting excess fees for doctors, lifting mandatory flu vaccinations for nursing home residents and certain health professionals, as well as ruling out employer contributions levied on meal vouchers and holiday vouchers, fearing the impact on their development and employees’ purchasing power.
The text has now reached the Senate, starting Saturday in committee, of course. The right-wing majority will have to revise its copy, if we are to believe former minister and LR boss, Bruno Retailleau, who sees the suspension of pension reform as an expression of a “PS diktat with RN involvement”.
