France's Assembly postpones 2027 budget revenue vote with 758 amendments left; rapporteur predicts defeat

France's National Assembly will not hold its formal vote on the revenue half of the 2027 state budget on Tuesday, November 3, as scheduled. LCP, the Assembly's public broadcaster, reported just after midnight that 758 amendments were still waiting to be debated when the sitting was suspended at midnight on Monday. Under the rules, the formal vote can happen only once every amendment has been examined. The debate on revenue continues, and no new date has been set. The budget's rapporteur general, a center-right deputy who is supposed to steer the bill, predicts that it will be rejected.

The Assembly's own schedule had listed the "vote solennel," a formal recorded vote, for Tuesday afternoon, after the weekly questions to the government. LCP said in its report on the postponement that this is the second time the vote has slipped; the first was on October 20. It said parliamentary sources expect the revenue debate to finish this week. Sébastien Chenu, a National Rally deputy who chaired Monday's sitting, said that "at the same pace, we can finish Wednesday evening." The Assembly's page, as we read it on Tuesday, lists the revenue debate as running through Friday, November 6, but gives no date for the vote, so the timing rests on what LCP reported from parliamentary sources and Chenu.

Quotations from French-language sources are 567politics translations. This story was first published as a preview of the Tuesday vote and was updated on Tuesday, November 3, after the postponement was reported.

Why this vote matters

A French budget bill has two parts. The first sets taxes and other revenue and fixes the overall balance. The second sets spending, department by department. The second part cannot be debated until the first has been adopted. If the Assembly rejects the first part, the whole bill falls at first reading in the lower house.

That does not end the process. As LCP explained, the bill would then go to the Senate in the government's original form, without any of the Assembly's changes. LCP said again on Tuesday that the Assembly has until midnight on November 17 to finish its first reading under the deadlines set by the Constitution.

The stakes are also political. This is the last budget of Emmanuel Macron's presidency, with a presidential election due in spring 2027. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has no majority in the Assembly. The economic backdrop is weak; France's economy shrank in the third quarter, as we reported in our story on the Q3 contraction and the budget fight.

What the government proposed

Lecornu set out his plan in mid-September. In an interview with Le Figaro, reported by BFMTV, he said the bill would contain "a budget effort of about 54 billion euros, within fiscal stability." He called it "a major recovery effort." Franceinfo reported that the aim was to bring the deficit to 5% of GDP.

The government presented the bill to the cabinet on October 1, franceinfo reported. The Assembly's finance committee then examined it. According to a tally by NosParlementaires, a site that compiles the Assembly's open voting data, the committee rejected the revenue section by 31 votes to 3.

What lawmakers changed

The floor debate turned the government's bill into something quite different. NosParlementaires counted 415 recorded votes on the revenue section and 322 amendments adopted as of November 1. Many passed in a thinly attended chamber, often against the government's advice.

Lawmakers removed several of the government's revenue measures, according to that tally:

• The extension of an exceptional surtax on large companies' profits, worth €5 billion, was struck out on October 27 by 79 votes to 77.
• A cap on the 10% tax allowance for retirees' pensions, worth €1.4 billion, was struck out on October 15 by 116 votes to 30.
• A €2.5 billion levy on local government revenue was struck out on October 19 by 125 votes to 33.

LCP confirmed that the Assembly voted against extending the corporate surtax and against cutting the retirees' allowance cap. It said the corporate surtax vote went against the government by two votes.

Lawmakers also added taxes the government had not proposed. NosParlementaires listed a 10% tax on share buybacks by large listed companies, adopted 32 to 24. Deputies restored the pre-2019 version of France's "exit tax" on people who move abroad, by 31 to 20. They also voted to tax multinationals on the share of their worldwide profit earned in France, by 74 to 72.

The tally showed a pattern. The National Rally (RN), the largest single group, often decided outcomes. When it voted with the government's opponents to strike a measure, the measure fell. When it abstained, several left-wing tax proposals passed.

None of these changes is final. LCP noted that only the final version of the bill will count. If the revenue section is rejected when the vote finally takes place, all 322 amendments disappear, and the Senate starts again from the government's text.

The prediction of defeat

Philippe Juvin, the rapporteur general, belongs to the center-right Droite Républicaine group, the Assembly group of Les Républicains. He told franceinfo on Sunday that "there will be a vote that will probably be negative. The budget will be refused by Parliament."

LCP reached a similar view. It said a rejection was "more than likely," because, as with the social security budget, "the text resulting from the debates will really suit nobody." In its Tuesday report it wrote that, given the debates and the lack of a majority, rejection is "more than probable" and that adoption would be "such a surprise that no one in the Assembly envisages it." NosParlementaires reported that the Assembly rejected that social security bill on October 23.

The 49.3 question

Behind the vote sits a constitutional tool known by its article number, 49.3. It lets the government pass a budget without a vote. In return, the Assembly can bring the government down with a motion of censure backed by an absolute majority of its members.

Lecornu used it last winter. NosParlementaires reported that he invoked 49.3 three times between January 20 and 30 to pass the 2026 budget. The closest censure motion got 269 votes on January 23, when 288 were needed. The budget was finally adopted on February 2, BFMTV noted.

This year Lecornu made a conditional promise. He accused the hard-left France Insoumise (LFI) of obstruction and offered a deal in Le Figaro. "Let them make no parliamentary obstruction. There will be neither 49.3 nor ordinances, and at the end, there will be a vote!" he said, as quoted by BFMTV.

Lecornu's most recent on-record statement on the budget that we found is a post on X dated October 23. He wrote it after the rating agency Moody's decided not to change France's Aa3 rating, which carries a negative outlook, RTL and AFP reported. "I welcome, at last, the action of the political forces who, without a majority, agreed to open the debate on the budget on a normal timetable," he wrote. "This signal shows our lenders that there is a path. It is up to us to pursue it, to give France a budget by the end of the year, in line with the 5% deficit target." The post does not mention 49.3 or ordinances. Moody's said its rating "starts from the assumption that a 2027 budget reducing the public deficit will be adopted" and that social tensions "will moderate somewhat in the coming months." RTL reported that the yield on France's 10-year bonds reached about 5.14% on October 22, the highest since June 2002, and closed at 5.01% on October 23. An ING economist told RTL that S&P's next decision, on November 27, would be another important date for how France's risk is seen.

Le Parisien reported on October 28 that Braun-Pivet's idea had not persuaded the prime minister, "according to our information." The only wording it quoted came from his entourage, which was not named: on the budget, "the parliamentary procedure is following its normal course," and markets had steadied after the Moody's decision. Those words belong to the unnamed entourage, not to Lecornu, and we could read only the opening of that article, which sits behind a paywall.

Franceinfo reported in October that an unnamed source in the executive summed up the position differently: "We want to give parliamentary discussion its chance. After that, all outcomes remain open, including ordinances." Ordinances are a separate route. The Constitution lets the government put its budget into force by ordinance if Parliament has not decided within 70 days. LCP said that deadline falls at midnight on December 17.

Some on the center and right want an early 49.3. LCP reported that Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet, of Macron's Ensemble pour la République group, and Juvin have both argued for using it before the bill returns from the Senate. "We will have to, in my view, go through a 49.3. I have been saying it since August," Juvin told franceinfo.

Braun-Pivet laid out her case in a Le Figaro interview published on the evening of October 27, reported by 20 Minutes and AFP. "I call on Sébastien Lecornu to activate 49.3 in the coming days rather than play for time," she said. She argued that it would "fix things in terms of taxation and revenue" and "reassure everyone, markets as well as French people." On ordinances she said that "the initial text will be kept, without taking any account of the parliamentary debates." She acknowledged that 49.3 would expose the government to a censure motion, but said she hoped the 577 deputies would "think of France's interest first."

The government's own line is less specific. Economy Minister Roland Lescure told RTL on October 21 that there are "two ways to get a budget adopted": either lawmakers can bring the government there during the budget review, "or we will bring them there," which he said would not be "by force" but with "constitutional instruments." He called 49.3 and ordinances "safety barriers." "On the budget highway, if there is a road exit, we will activate the guardrails," he said, while saying he had not predetermined the budget's fate.

The case from the right

Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, now a Les Républicains deputy for Paris, made the strongest version of that argument. On France 2 on October 30, he said that "when you are prime minister, you have to know how to take risks." He added: "You have to say stop to blackmail."

Barnier accused Lecornu of giving in to "the blackmail of the Socialist Party" last year, and said there was now "blackmail from the National Rally." He criticized spending added during the debates: "20 billion more on the social security bill, 10 billion more on the state budget, it's fiscal madness." He said his party would not vote to censure the government. "We need stability," he said.

Juvin argued for deeper spending cuts. He told franceinfo he wanted spending cut by about 10%. "We can't manage to lower public spending. There needs to be an awakening. Spend less, produce more," he said. He also called for a return to a balanced budget within two years rather than five.

The National Rally has taken a different line. When the Socialists tried to kill the bill before debate began on October 13, the RN voted against that motion. "We want to have this debate," RN budget spokesman Jean-Philippe Tanguy said, according to LCP. "Discussing the budget is the basis of Parliament," he added.

That did not mean support. Capital reported that the RN wanted to use the debate to attack the government's choices. Franceinfo reported that Marine Le Pen told RN lawmakers on September 12 that "an imperfect budget operational before the elections is preferable this time to a special law." RN deputy Matthias Renault said that was "a position of openness," but that it did "not mean ruling out censure in advance." Marine Le Pen, who has led the RN group in the Assembly, said at the party's congress in Orléans on October 25 that she would leave that post "from tomorrow" in order to "comply with that requirement of impartiality" as a presidential candidate, BFMTV's live coverage reported.

The case from the left

The left has attacked the bill from the other direction, arguing that it asks too little of the wealthy. Socialist budget lead Estelle Mercier said the prime minister "gave no sign of change on his plan," Capital reported. She called the Socialist motion to reject the bill "a summons."

Socialist spokesman Arthur Delaporte said Lecornu's letter to the group contained "not a single subject of tax justice." Spokeswoman Mélanie Thomin said that "none of our amendments on the taxation of the richest was accepted" in committee.

The party's leaders put the same criticism in writing before the debate began. In an October 2 letter, reported by 20 Minutes and AFP, Boris Vallaud, who leads the Socialist deputies, Patrick Kanner, who leads the Socialist senators, and Johanna Rolland asked Lecornu to amend the bill "without delay." They wrote that its lack of "tax justice efforts" made it "not acceptable," and that "you in effect make the adoption of your budget impossible unless you turn, even passively, to the National Rally, which we could not imagine." They added that the goal of reducing the debt "cannot mean a budget where the most modest keep paying for the richest."

The Socialist motion failed. The Assembly's record of the October 13 vote shows 149 votes for and 236 against. The Socialists, LFI, the Greens and the Communist-led group voted for it. The RN, Macron's allies, the Droite Républicaine and Horizons voted against.

LFI's Éric Coquerel, who chairs the finance committee, backed the Socialist motion. "Yes, we are going to vote for the motion to reject. I remind you that we also tabled one," he said, according to Capital. Green group leader Cyrielle Chatelain accused the government of "doing everything so that the RN is accommodating."

Coquerel also criticized the October 27 vote that removed the corporate surtax. NosParlementaires quoted him from the Assembly record. "A majority of the central bloc, allied with the National Rally, decided to increase the deficit by 5 billion," he said.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure has gone further. At his party's summer meeting on August 28, franceinfo reported, he said: "There will be censure." Last winter, though, most Socialist deputies did not vote to censure. NosParlementaires found that only five current members of the group voted for all three of the left's censure motions.

The center's view

Lecornu's allies have defended both the bill and the decision to keep debating it. Horizons group president Laurent Marcangeli said the Assembly should do its job before the Senate. "I want this assembly to do its work, before the Senate," he said, as quoted by Capital.

Marcangeli also drew a line on the RN. "Negotiate, no, the RN is not a very viable and very safe partner. Discuss, yes," he said. People around Lecornu told franceinfo in the fall: "There will be no negotiations with the RN. There are discussions with the PS."

Centrist deputies also objected to some RN amendments. Daniel Labaronne, of Macron's group, criticized one RN measure on housing loans that passed on October 30. "With the RN, the gifts pile up while the bill disappears," he said in the chamber, as quoted by NosParlementaires.

Paths still open for the budget bill

The postponement does not change the paths that remain open:

• The revenue section passes. LCP said this is so unlikely that no one in the Assembly expects it. Deputies would then begin the spending section, and they have until midnight on November 17 to finish the whole bill at first reading.
• The revenue section fails. This is the likelier outcome, according to LCP. The spending section would not be examined in the Assembly, and the government's original text, without the amendments adopted so far, would go to the Senate. A joint committee of seven deputies and seven senators would later try to agree on a text.
• The vote slips again. LCP said the vote can be held only after every amendment has been examined. If the debate runs past this week, the formal vote moves with it, within the November 17 limit.

Beyond that, the government can use 49.3 at a later stage or, after December 17, turn to ordinances. LCP noted that a government using ordinances could still face a censure motion, but the budget would stand.

The precedent is recent. NosParlementaires reported that the Assembly rejected the revenue section of the 2026 budget on November 21, 2025, by 404 votes to 1. A joint committee then failed, a stopgap "special law" kept the state running, and the budget passed by 49.3 in February.

This year the calendar is tighter. NosParlementaires noted that the parliamentary session is due to close on February 28, 2027, ahead of the presidential election. Protests over living costs in France and elsewhere are covered in our report on youth protests across Europe, and our France country guide tracks the budget fight over time.

About this report

This story was updated on Tuesday, November 3, after LCP reported that the formal vote would not take place that afternoon. We do not yet know the result of the vote or its new date. The count of 758 remaining amendments comes from LCP, which cited the position at the suspension of Monday's sitting. We could not open the Assembly's full record of Monday night's sitting, so we rely on LCP for it. A second outlet, Journal du Coin, reported the same figure and attributed it to LCP. Several other vote counts above come from NosParlementaires, which compiles the Assembly's open data; we checked the October 13 count against the Assembly's own record, and we attribute the rest to that site.

We have not reviewed French lawmakers' declarations of interests and assets for this article, so it makes no claims about the finances of the deputies named. Our methodology and editorial standards explain how we source and attribute claims.

Differing perspectives

Should the French government use Article 49.3 to pass the 2027 budget?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Activate 49.3 within days

  Who holds it: Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly

  In a Le Figaro interview reported by 20 Minutes and AFP on Oct. 28, and translated here from French, Braun-Pivet said: "I call on Sébastien Lecornu to activate 49.3 in the coming days rather than play for time." She argued it would "fix things in terms of taxation and revenue" and "reassure everyone, markets as well as French people." She said ordinances would keep the initial text without regard for parliamentary debates, and that she hoped deputies would "think of France's interest first" if a censure motion followed.

  In their words: 20 Minutes with AFP, Oct. 28, 2026 ↗

• Hold a vote, no 49.3 without obstruction

  Who holds it: Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu

  In a Sept. 17 Le Figaro interview, reported by BFMTV and translated here from French, Lecornu aimed at France Insoumise: "Let them make no parliamentary obstruction. There will be neither 49.3 nor ordinances, and at the end, there will be a vote!" He said no one can wish to inherit "absolute disorder," and called wasting the next term's first year "disqualifying."

  In their words: BFMTV, Sept. 17, 2026 ↗

• Keep 49.3 and ordinances as safeguards

  Who holds it: Roland Lescure, Minister of the Economy and Finance

  On RTL on Oct. 21, translated here from French, Lescure said there are "two ways to get a budget adopted": lawmakers bring the government there during the budget review, "or we will bring them there," not "by force" but with "constitutional instruments." He called 49.3 and ordinances "safety barriers": "On the budget highway, if there is a road exit, we will activate the guardrails." He denied any forced passage and described the route as one through reason.

  In their words: RTL, Oct. 21, 2026 ↗

• Rewrite the bill or face censure

  Who holds it: Boris Vallaud, Patrick Kanner and Johanna Rolland, Socialist Party leaders

  In an Oct. 2 letter reported by 20 Minutes and AFP, and translated here from French, the three asked Lecornu to amend the bill "without delay," saying it lacks "tax justice efforts" and is "not acceptable." They wrote that he in effect makes adoption impossible "unless you turn, even passively, to the National Rally, which we could not imagine," calling that a "political and moral fault." They kept the goal of cutting debt but said it cannot mean the most modest keep paying for the richest.

  In their words: 20 Minutes with AFP, Oct. 2, 2026 ↗

• Use 49.3 to pass the budget

  Who holds it: Michel Barnier, former prime minister and Les Républicains deputy

  On France 2 on Oct. 30, Barnier said, in a translation from French: "When you are prime minister, you have to know how to take risks. You have to say stop to blackmail." Asked if he wants 49.3 used, he said it is "up to the government to decide" and "a way of putting everyone before their responsibilities." He said his party will not vote to censure.

  In their words: franceinfo, Oct. 30, 2026 ↗