“CIt’s a play, a failure. » Bruno Retailleau did not hide his annoyance when answering questions about the 2026 Finance Bill, whose “revenue” section was overwhelmingly rejected by deputies. In an interview given to Paristhe leader of the Les Républicains (LR) party was also highly critical of the choices made by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his second government. He referred specifically to the suspension of the pension reform, which was approved by the Socialist Party (PS) so that the Socialist Party (PS) did not vote to condemn it.
The former Minister of Home Affairs believes that the socialists now have control over the government, which will fulfill their demands. The real Prime Minister, according to him, Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the Rose Party, would in fact say: “Olivier Faure decides. Sébastien Lecornu does it.”
Senate as a safeguard
Knowing that the Senate is mostly made up of LR MPs, Bruno Retailleau is confident in his ability to reverse what he describes as “the fiscal folly of LFI and the National Rally”. Whether it is the budget as a whole or the more specific case of the suspension of pension reform, the former Beauvau hotel renter is counting on the Upper House of Parliament to reveal the various additional taxes found in the financial law, and which are likely to “downgrade France and impoverish France”.
“With savings of more than 30 billion euros, the Senate will exceed what the government expected, while we now have an additional tax budget of 53 billion,” explained Bruno Retailleau. An ambition that, among other things, must involve “no replacement of all civil servants who will retire”.
Added to this was the drastic reduction of credit “to institutions which we must not fear to eliminate”, the replacement of AME with Emergency Medical Assistance, without forgetting the lifting of the suspension of pension reform, which he accused of “unspeakable sedition”. This last point, he said, is “a matter of respect for the younger generation”, and concluded: “This suspension is very bad, because it will lead to the helplessness of society. »
“The worst thing is having a bad budget”
Far from being finished with Sébastien Lecornu’s government, Bruno Retailleau believes that Sébastien Lecornu’s government is basing its policies on “so-called skills” that were put forward “for weeks”, but that in the end will only be window dressing. After much debate held on the hemicycle, the rejection of the Finance Bill 2026 by the majority of MPs, with one vote in favour, was a real disaster for the LR boss. “All this wasted time is just an act, a failure,” he denounced.
When asked about the possibility of France not having a budget after weeks of discussions and compromises, he said he believed this was not the worst case scenario. He especially cited a special law that automatically renews the 2025 budget for the following year in the event of failure in the 2026 budget debate. According to him, “the worst thing is to have a bad budget, which throws France into chaos”.
Moreover, he suspected the government was risking everything in holding the next municipal elections “to implement a corrective budget that would not be censored”, assuming that the Socialist Party was following other “semi-skillful tactics”, as Bruno Retailleau put it.
