PARIS — French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has moved to suspend President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply divisive 2023 pension reform in a last-ditch effort to save his fragile government ahead of no-confidence votes scheduled for later this week, according to BBC News.
Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, Lecornu told the National Assembly he would formally propose halting the reform which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 until after the next presidential election in 2027. His statement drew loud applause from left-wing MPs and marks the clearest sign yet of how far Macron’s administration is willing to retreat to avoid another political collapse.
“I will propose that parliament suspend the 2023 pension reform until the presidential election,” Lecornu declared. The promise could prove pivotal: Socialist deputies had conditioned their support for his government on a full and immediate suspension of the measure. “If he does not explicitly say those words, it will be censure,” Socialist lawmaker Laurent Baumel warned earlier on French television.
The announcement comes amid one of the most volatile political periods of Macron’s presidency. Lecornu, one of the president’s closest allies, resigned just last week, 26 days after his initial appointment only to be reappointed days later after backroom negotiations failed to produce a viable replacement. His survival now hinges on Thursday’s twin no-confidence motions tabled by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed.
Macron’s controversial pension reform, forced through parliament in March 2023 via the emergency constitutional mechanism known as Article 49:3, became a national flashpoint that triggered months of strikes and protests. Lecornu admitted last week that the episode had left a “wound on democracy,” a phrase that resonated across party lines.
On Tuesday, he told MPs that suspending the reform would cost €400 million in 2026 and €1.8 billion the following year costs he said would need to be offset by “other savings.” The prime minister also pledged to restore parliamentary procedure, promising an end to the repeated use of Article 49:3 to force through budgets and major legislation. “The government will propose, we will debate, and you will vote,” he said, drawing both groans and applause from the chamber.
France’s economic backdrop adds another layer of urgency. The country’s budget deficit is expected to reach 5.4% of GDP this year, well above the European Union’s 3% target, while public debt has climbed to €3.4 trillion, nearly 114% of GDP, the third-highest in the eurozone after Greece and Italy. Lecornu’s task is to pass a credible budget while keeping his precarious coalition intact.
Despite opposition fury, the prime minister’s reversal on the pension law has been hailed as a victory by Socialist leader Boris Vallaud, who said the move showed the government had finally “heard the French people.” But Le Pen and Mélenchon remain unmoved, calling instead for new elections to break the deadlock that has paralyzed France’s hung parliament since the 2024 snap vote.
As Lecornu put it, France is “living through an era of crisis.” Whether his concession will bring calm or merely delay another storm may be decided within days.
