In the commission review of the 2026 social security financing bill, French deputies approved the suspension of the 2023 pension reform on Friday evening. Proposed by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to appease the Socialist Party, the measure highlighted divisions within the New Popular Front. The overall bill was rejected, but debates will continue in the National Assembly.
Just before the end of debates in the commission on the 2026 social security financing bill (PLFSS), deputies adopted on Friday, October 31, the article providing for the suspension of the 2023 pension reform. This reform addressed the age of opening rights to a pension. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had proposed the measure to meet a demand from the Socialist Party (PS) and prevent a censure vote from it.
The public vote revealed divisions within the New Popular Front: representatives from La France Insoumise (LFI) voted against, while The Ecologists and the Gauche Démocrate et Républicaine (GDR) group abstained. Besides the PS, supporters included the Rassemblement National (RN), as well as centrists from the Les Démocrates, Libertés, independents, overseas, and territories groups. Macronists abstained.
This adoption marks an initial clarification of the groups' positions, though it has not resolved all questions. Symbolic in nature, it comes amid the overall rejection of the PLFSS late Friday after 11 p.m. This rejection has no immediate effect: discussions will resume in the chamber starting Tuesday, November 4, on the executive's initial version of the bill.
Additionally, the article on non-revalorization of social benefits and the idea of a 'white year' was deleted during these debates.