Budget 2026: With 404 Votes Against, the Deputies Almost Unanimously Reject the Government Text

FINANCE: The budget was rejected in the National Assembly. This vote relaunches the scenarios of forceful passage before the examination of the text in the Senate

The National Assembly inflicted a major setback on the executive during the night from Friday to Saturday by largely rejecting the budget 2026 : 404 votes against, only one for, 84 abstentions. After 125 hours of debate, MEPs rejected the “revenue” part, which brought down the entire text without the “expenditure” section being examined. There left and the RN voted against, part of the majority abstained or opposed. Only Harold Huwart (Liot) supported the project.

Amélie de Montchalin defended “useful work”, while denouncing “unconstitutional, unrealistic or inapplicable” measures introduced by the oppositions. On X, she criticized the “cynical attitude” of the “extremes”. In the presidential camp, Paul Midy speaks of “economic horrors”, while Sébastien Lecornu deplored “tactical blows from the extremes which make the copy insincere”.

A text as if the government were “majority”

The tax increases voted by the Assembly –such as the’ “universal tax” on multinationals or the increase in the tax on share buybacks – have crystallized tensions. According to Amélie de Montchalin, they would increase the deficit to “4.1%” of GDP, but would remain “fragile”. For Eric Coquerel, the government presented a text as if it were “majority”. Marc Fesneau believes, on the contrary, that “everyone must take a part” in the budgetary effort.

The RN accuses the executive of preparing a forceful passage “by orders or by one 49.3 “. The PS, who hoped to obtain a tax justice measure, judges that “the account is not there”. For his part, Boris Vallaud denounced “the intransigence of part of the central bloc”, even if the socialists claim to want to “seek compromise”.

The text sent to the Senate

The text now arrives in the Senate, which will resume examination on Thursday on the basis of the initial draft. Its adoption before the end of the year appears very uncertain, despite a Prime Minister who insists that “it has to work”.

Philippe Juvin (LR) invited the government to use 49.3 to avoid an impasse. Failing this, a “special law” could guarantee fiscal continuity, a scenario that Sébastien Lecornu says he does not favor.