The French government held on in parliament on Monday after defeating the first of two no-confidence motions related to the 2026 budget. Lawmakers rejected the initial motion brought by the hard-left group France Unbowed (LFI), which secured 260 votes in favour but fell short of the 289 votes required to unseat the government.
The second motion, lodged by the far-right National Rally (RN), was set to be voted on later the same day. According to parliamentary procedure, should the government also survive that challenge, the budget for 2026 would move into effect.
Government sources signalled that this vote was a pivotal step in finalising the budget process. The administration has already faced multiple no-confidence attempts in recent weeks related to discrete sections of the budget text, and this sequence of motions is the latest parliamentary hurdle on the path to budget approval.
Analysing the numbers from the first motion, the 260 votes in favour of the LFI motion did not meet the 289-vote threshold necessary to bring down the government. The shortfall means the executive remains in office for the immediate term, pending the outcome of the RN motion later in the day.
This latest parliamentary activity is part of the formal route to validating the 2026 spending plan. If the government withstands the second no-confidence motion as anticipated, lawmakers will have cleared the final major obstacle standing between the administration and the enactment of the 2026 budget.
Readers should note that the government had previously endured several earlier no-confidence votes last month that related to different portions of the budget text. Those earlier challenges did not result in the government's removal and set the stage for the current set of votes.
Summary of proceedings
- The first no-confidence motion, filed by LFI, received 260 votes in support and failed to reach the 289-vote threshold.
- A second motion from RN was scheduled for a later vote on the same day.
- The government had already faced several no-confidence motions last month over sections of the budget text.