2027 budget: vote on revenue postponed again, 758 amendments still pending

Same again at the Assemblée nationale, France's lower house. The formal vote on the first part of the 2027 finance bill (PLF), covering revenue, was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, straight after government question time. It will not be held. When the sitting closed at midnight on Monday, 758 amendments were still to be examined, according to LCP.

This is the second time the vote has slipped: it had already been scheduled for 20 October, before being postponed for the same reasons. No new date has been set. The vote can only take place once the last amendment has been dealt with.

Debates hoped to end this week

Instead of moving on to the spending section, MPs are therefore pressing on with the revenue marathon on Tuesday. Parliamentary sources quoted by LCP expect it to wrap up by the end of the week. Sébastien Chenu (RN), who chaired the sitting on Monday afternoon, was more specific.

Sébastien Chenu, the RN vice-president of the Assemblée, said that at the same pace, MPs could finish on Wednesday evening.

Time is short. The Constitution gives MPs until midnight on 17 November to vote on the budget as a whole at first reading. After that deadline, the bill goes to the Senate.

Votes that could all fall away

In the chamber, however, amendments keep piling up. On Monday, MPs adopted a cut in VAT from 10% to 5.5% on everyday public transport (bus, tram, metro, TER regional trains), championed by the Green MP Eva Sas, by 24 votes to 15 with 55 abstentions. Its cost is estimated at €300 million by the Écologiste et social group. An RN amendment seeking the same reduced rate on fuel was rejected.

Another measure was passed, this time with government support: a special VAT exemption scheme for wine and spirits merchants making more than 85% of their sales abroad, designed for cognac, which has been hit by American and Chinese surcharges. Public Accounts Minister David Amiel explained that he wanted to ease the cash-flow pressure on the companies concerned.

But these votes hang on an uncertain outcome. With Sébastien Lecornu's government lacking a majority, a rejection of the revenue section is seen as more than likely. In that scenario, MPs would never examine spending, and the Senate would inherit the executive's original draft, stripped of all the amendments adopted since 13 October.

Street protests in the background

This latest setback comes two days before a cross-sector day of mobilisation on Thursday 5 November, called by the union alliance (CFDT, CGT, FO, Unsa, FSU) and now joined by all the unions and youth organisations. Wages, public services and jobs are at the heart of the demands. CGT general secretary Sophie Binet is calling for a revision of a draft budget that she considers, as it stands, catastrophic for the country.

What next?

Debates resume this afternoon, after government question time broadcast at 3pm on LCP. If the pace holds, a vote on revenue could take place at the end of the week or next week. Beyond that, two weapons remain in the arsenal of Matignon, the Prime Minister's office: Article 49.3, at the risk of a motion of no confidence, and budget ordinances, never used before, which can be invoked if Parliament has not reached a decision within 70 days, i.e. by midnight on 17 December.