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National Rally, the right-wing party led by Marine Le Pen, has called on Macron to resign and allow a presidential election to end the instability, but Macron appears determined to hold on and hope the new government can survive.
Lecornu and his ministers approved a draft budget in a meeting with Macron on Tuesday, and the president warned that any vote to bring down the government would lead him to dissolve the national assembly. This would trigger a vote on the assembly members, not the presidency.
The pension age was due to increase from 62 to 64 in stages over the next few years, in a similar phased approach to Australia’s increase in the pension age from 65 to 67, which took six years to take effect.
France lifted its retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2010, but could not agree on another increase. Macron overcame that by lifting the age to 64 without a vote in the national assembly.
Lecornu did not scrap the change but suspended it instead, and he said it would not apply before the presidential election due in 2027. This appears set to make it a key election issue for the candidates seeking to replace Macron, who must leave the post after two terms.
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Australian National University professor Peter Whiteford estimated two years ago that public pension spending in France was 13.6 per cent of GDP, compared to 4 per cent in Australia.
The arguments centre on ways to save money when the national government’s debt has climbed to €3.3 trillion ($5.9 trillion), or about 114 per cent of gross domestic product, the third-highest level in the European Union after Greece and Italy. Lecornu is proposing more than €30 billion ($54 billion) in savings.
‘Dramatic for France’
French economist Philippe Aghion, named one of the three winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday, said a path out of the budget mess was needed.
“I hope there will be a compromise because the tragedy for France is to experience political instability,” he told reporters in Paris prior to the suspension announcement.
Waiting game: National Rally’s Marine Le Pen is manoeuvring against Lecornu.Credit: AP
“If there is another censure, it would be dramatic for France. Our interest rates would continue to rise, our spread would continue to rise; it would be dramatic. We must absolutely avoid censure and still arrive at a budget.”
National Rally has lodged a motion in the national assembly to bring down Lecornu and his cabinet, which he named on Monday.
The left-wing party La France Insoumise, also known as LFI or France Unbowed, also wants to remove the government.
Lecornu has gained a chance to hang on to power, however, with Socialist parliamentary chief Boris Vallaud welcoming the change to the age pension.
The Socialists and the Communists said they would not vote Lecornu out, while the Republicans sent a similar message.
With Reuters
