The Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly rejected, on Saturday evening, November 29, the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2026 on new reading. A vote which opens a tense week for the Lecornu government, pressed for time and still in search of a majority.
The week promises to be under high tension for the Lecornu government, pressed for time and still in search of a majority. And for good reason: following an express examination of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2026, on new reading, the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly rejected the text.
The Social Security budget for 2026, in the version transmitted by the Senate, will therefore arrive in the hemicycle of the Palais Bourbon on Tuesday, December 2. And the timetable is tight since the vote, on the entire text, is scheduled for December 9.
The rejection of the text in committee on Saturday, November 29, made it possible to measure the path that remains to be taken to reach, during this new reading, a compromise. If the PS abstained from the final vote, according to the socialist Jérôme Guedj, the LR deputies voted against the text, according to their representative Justine Gruet.
Search for compromise
In committee, “we are shooting blanks, the votes do not impact the text which will be studied in session, but it gives an overview, and we see that there are still many points of difficulty to overcome before finding an overall agreement”, declared to AFP the president of the committee Frédéric Valletoux after the vote. His own group, Horizons, should hesitate between a vote against and an abstention in session, he said.
Even before the rejection, the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud stressed on Saturday in an interview with Le Parisien that the socialists could not “be the only ones” to seek compromise on the budget, calling on the government camp to “get its act together”.
Saturday’s debates provided a glimpse of the agreements that will or will not be made in the hemicycle. The commission, for example, reinstated the increase in the CSG on capital income, voted on at first reading in the Assembly at the beginning of November before being deleted in the Senate. This system voted on at the initiative of the socialists proposes to advance the Generalized Social Contribution (CSG) on capital income, allowing revenues of 2.8 billion additional euros in 2026.
The Renaissance group of deputies once again gave its support to the measure, receiving thanks from the socialist Jérôme Guedj, for whom it is absolutely necessary to increase revenues from this budget. The right and the far right opposed it. Conversely, the commission removed, as at first reading, the freezing of the CSG scale proposed by the government, and reinstated by the senators. The LR deputies adopting a position contrary to those of the LR senators.
More surprisingly, the committee also validated the 1 billion euro surcharge targeting supplementary health insurance, even though deputies were largely opposed to it at first reading of the PLFSS. This turnaround is due to the fact that the senators had deleted the additional 100 million, added by the government in the amending letter to finance the suspension of the pension reform.
Crucial meeting Monday between Matignon and the socialists
Maintaining the objective of a deficit not exceeding 20 billion euros, as desired by the government, will be difficult when it was estimated at 24 billion at the end of the first reading in the Assembly.
In addition to the increase in the CSG on capital income, one avenue of revenue lies in a measure by socialist senators to subject certain salary supplements (profit-sharing bonuses, etc.) to social contributions when they exceed 6,000 euros per year, for salaries above three minimum wage. But the Social Affairs Committee deleted the article.
Another key to the negotiations, on the spending side: the freezing of social benefits and retirement pensions, usually indexed to inflation. Unlike the Senate, the committee decided to restore the thaw for all retirees, regardless of the level of their pension. She also reinstated the suspension of pension reform, which senators had removed.
A crucial meeting will be held in Matignon on Monday between the Prime Minister and the Socialists. For Jérôme Guedj, we “are really going to get into the tough stuff” during this second reading. Because if after a new reading in the Senate, the last word is given to the Assembly, the copy submitted to the final vote will only be able to differ very little from that negotiated next week.
And the issue goes beyond that of this text alone. For many, the Social Security budget will be a “justice of the peace” which could trigger a positive dynamic also for the State budget.
If the Social Security budget is adopted, “you are halfway there. (…) the story is not the same behind it, it is absolutely major”, confides a minister.
The senators for their part continue the examination at first reading of the finance bill (PLF), substantially rewriting the government copy: they thus removed on Saturday morning a surtax on company profits supposed to bring in 4 billion euros, and even 6 billion in the version which had been approved by the Assembly before it rejected the entire text.
