Sébastien Lecornu is handing the Socialist Party a major win.
PARIS — French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Tuesday in his first speech to parliament that he plans to freeze an unpopular law that raised the minimum retirement age for most workers until the next presidential election in 2027.
The decision is a major victory for the opposition Socialist Party, who had threatened to vote to topple Lecornu’s nascent government if he did not freeze the pension reform, which was passed in 2023 and is incrementally raising the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62 for most workers.
“A suspension must be an opportunity. Debating the issue of pensions is not just a financial equation. It is an essential part of our social contract. And this contract, too, needs overhauling,” Lecornu said.
A representative from the Socialist Party is set to respond to Lecornu’s speech in parliament later Tuesday afternoon. Given most other opposition parties have vowed to try to topple Lecornu’s government, the Socialists’ next move will determine whether the 39-year-old PM has bought himself time or if France will fall deeper into the spiral of political chaos that began with the collapse of his first government, which lasted just 14 hours, last week. French President Emmanuel Macron reappointed Lecornu on Friday and took a second stab at naming a cabinet on Sunday.
The crisis has fueled concerns that the eurozone’s second-largest economy has become so ungovernable it can no longer pay its bills.
If Lecornu’s second government is taken down, it would be the fourth to collapse in less than a year — and it would dramatically raise the prospect of Macron dissolving parliament to break the deadlock. Two motions of no confidence — one tabled by a group of far-left, Green, and left-wing lawmakers, the other by the far right — against the Lecornu government will be put to a vote Thursday.
Lecornu insisted that such a suspension must be matched with adequate savings to rein in runaway public spending and bring down a budget deficit projected to hit 5.4 percent of gross domestic product this year.
Lecornu estimated that the freeze would cost French state finances €400 million for 2026. His government earlier Tuesday proposed a budget aimed at getting the deficit below 5 percent of GDP for next year that includes €31 billion of spending cuts and tax hikes.
The prime minister added that he would not endorse an outcome that could undermine France’s fiscal credibility or its pension system.
This developing story is being updated.