French Social Security Budget Debate Paused, Pension Reform to be Discussed Wednesday
PARIS – debates surrounding France’s Social Security budget were suspended in the National Assembly Friday, with lawmakers set to turn their attention to pension reform on Wednesday, November 13th. The move comes after disagreements over extending debate hours to fully address remaining amendments.
During Friday’s session, amendments proposed by Sandrine Runel (Socialists) led deputies to modify the government’s initial proposal regarding post-maternity leave medical examinations, reinstating their obligatory nature and setting a potential duration of one month – renewable in two-month increments – for leave taken either in the city or hospital. Danielle Simonnet (Ecologists and social) had previously voiced indignation regarding aspects of the government’s plan concerning doctors.
Requests from Mathilde Panot (La France insoumise) and Cyrielle Chatelain (Ecologiste et social) to extend debates past midnight were rejected by a majority of deputies. Panot subsequently criticized the outcome, stating on X (formerly Twitter) that a “grand coalition” was allowing the government to send the text to the Senate “at its convenience without any final vote by the Assembly.”
A heated exchange occurred between Manuel Bompard (LFI) and Jérôme Guedj (PS) regarding procedural tactics, with Bompard calling for deputies to withdraw half of their remaining amendments for Wednesday and Guedj pointing to a previous vote against the “recipes” portion of the budget as a delaying tactic.
The differing viewpoints between LFI and the PS are expected to resurface during Wednesday’s debate on the suspension of pension reform,which LFI views as insufficient,while the PS had previously made it a condition for not promptly censoring the government.
the Assembly will resume examination of the state finance bill for 2026 on Thursday, November 14th, following the pension reform debate. The timetable for these discussions is expected to be tight due to constitutional deadlines.
