The French Senate adopted on Wednesday afternoon its heavily revised version of the 2026 social security financing bill (PLFSS), with 196 votes in favor and 119 against. The joint committee (CMP) of deputies and senators then failed to reach an agreement in the evening, sending the text back to the National Assembly for a new reading. This Senate version restores several government measures, such as the retirement reform, and brings the deficit to 17.6 billion euros.
The Senate, dominated by the right and center, concluded over a week of debates by adopting on Wednesday, November 26, 2025, its bill for financing social security in 2026. The senators removed many measures added by the National Assembly in first reading, deeply altering the government's initial draft. Key changes include rejecting the suspension of Elisabeth Borne's retirement reform, restoring the freeze on social benefits and retirement pensions – except for those below 1,400 euros, indexed to inflation – and maintaining the CSG rate freeze, avoiding an increase on capital estimated at 2.8 billion euros.
This version reduces the projected social security deficit to 17.6 billion euros in 2026, compared to 23 billion in 2025 and over 24 billion in the Assembly's version. "We have acted responsibly," praised LR Senator Corinne Imbert, while Socialist Senator Annie Le Houérou lamented that this budget "restores the horrors that our deputy colleagues had managed to temper slightly."
Shortly after, the Joint Committee (CMP), made up of seven deputies and seven senators, met in closed session but quickly acknowledged the impossibility of consensus due to inter-chamber differences. "The Senate has hardened the initial draft by removing all social and fiscal justice measures added by the deputies," criticized Ecologist Deputy Sandrine Rousseau. The text thus returns to the National Assembly for committee reading on Saturday, then plenary on Tuesday, under the guillotine rule limiting amendments.
Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou acknowledged that "there is still a long way to go before reaching a definitive and balanced version," highlighting "possible areas of agreement." Meanwhile, liberal doctors' unions, such as UFML, are calling for a strike from January 5 to 15 against measures deemed "destructive" for liberal medicine.
