French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Tuesday that the government will freeze the implementation of the controversial pension reform law until after the 2027 presidential election. The move is widely seen as an effort to maintain political stability, even at the cost of putting aside one of President Emmanuel Macron’s key domestic policies.
Faced with mounting pressure from left-leaning parties who strongly opposed the 2023 pension changes, Lecornu’s decision appears to have eased tensions and helped him avoid potential no-confidence votes. The Socialist Party, among others, has now said it will not support efforts to unseat him in Thursday’s parliamentary session, greatly improving his chances of staying in office.
France is currently enduring one of its deepest political crises in decades, with a fragmented legislature and minority governments struggling to pass fiscally conservative budgets. Lecornu, the sixth prime minister under Macron in just two years, presented the suspension in parliament while trying to secure approval for a leaner 2026 budget.
“I will propose to parliament, starting this autumn, that we suspend the 2023 pension reform until the presidential election,” Lecornu told lawmakers. “No increase in the retirement age will take place from now until January 2028.”
The pause is projected to cost the state €400 million in 2026 and €1.8 billion in 2027. Lecornu emphasised that these figures must be compensated for by cutting other expenditures to prevent further widening of the national deficit.
“It must therefore be financially offset, including through savings measures,” he said. “It cannot come at the price of a larger deficit.”
Originally passed without a parliamentary vote following weeks of mass protests, Macron’s pension reform aimed to gradually raise the full retirement age from 62 to 64.
Leftist factions had previously warned they might align with far-right groups to bring down the government unless the pension reform was suspended. Following Lecornu’s announcement, both the Socialist and Communist parties said they would not support any attempt to remove him from office. The conservative Republicans also appeared to approve the decision, concerned about rising public spending.
Socialist leader Boris Vallaud welcomed the pause as a “victory” but stressed that his party would push for major changes to what he described as an “unbearable and inadequate” budget plan.
The proposed 2026 budget includes over €30 billion in spending cuts and aims to reduce the deficit to 4.7% of GDP. However, France’s independent fiscal council has warned that the plan may rely too heavily on overly optimistic economic assumptions.
Following news of the suspension, French stock markets—especially bank shares—rose, and government bond yields continued to drop. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde stated that she had not observed any signs of instability in eurozone bond markets, despite France’s ongoing fiscal challenges.
Lecornu had briefly stepped down before being reappointed as prime minister last week, making him the shortest-serving PM in modern French history before his return. Macron, for his part, has resisted calls for new elections or stepping down amid the turmoil.
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.
“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.”
