Left-wing MPs during the review of the 2026 budget bill in the Assemblée Nationale, Paris, October 31, 2025. JULIEN MUGUET FOR LE MONDE
Friday, October 31 was set to be a decisive day in the Assemblée Nationale, potentially determining the fate of the 2026 budget proposed by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's government. The Socialists had issued an ultimatum for the end of the week: Either implement the Zucman tax on large fortunes – in its full or lighter version – or face a no-confidence motion. In the end, neither occurred. The tax was overwhelmingly rejected by MPs in the chamber, while a new round of negotiations among parliamentary groups, scheduled for the weekend, postponed any immediate fall of the government, leaving the outcome of these budget talks more uncertain than ever.
Read more 'Zucman tax': What the proposed wealth tax would mean for France
Lecornu had thereby secured at least a 48-hour reprieve. True to his commitment, the prime minister was present in the chamber from midday to lead the debates and waited until 6:30 pm to speak. As budget discussions had already been underway in the Assemblée Nationale for several days, he announced that the various ministers involved with the budget and the social security funding bill would convene MPs from all parliamentary groups "to try to find key principles and aggregates on which we can make progress." Radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI) had already announced it would not attend.
