LIVE - 2026 Budget: François Bayrou proposes a tax on small parcels

Small parcels will soon be taxed. The Prime Minister is proposing a "tax on small parcels," as proposed by the European Commission on May 20, with an amount of €2 per order delivered directly to an individual. Bayrou believes this tax is necessary to change "our consumption patterns" and "protect our businesses and producers from the tide of unfair competition that is assailing them."

François Bayrou is calling for "simplification" starting this autumn. The Prime Minister intends to "lift all the bureaucratic procedures that are suffocating businesses, homes and individuals" , with "ever more standards" . "Our vital prognosis as a State is at stake" , he declared, before announcing "fewer subsidies in exchange for more freedoms" . To achieve this, Bayrou intends to legislate by decree to "do this "give and take" work immediately and starting this autumn" . A measure that is not quantified in the plan, but which, according to the Prime Minister, would allow for "several billion in savings" . François Bayrou, who has reiterated that he has not quantified these savings, claims to believe them to be "plausible" .

The Prime Minister announced a special effort "for those who have the capacity to contribute more." "We will hunt down useless, ineffective tax loopholes, starting with the schemes that are about to be phased out," said François Bayrou. While stating that he did not intend to touch small pensions, the head of government nevertheless assured that he wanted to "bring the largest pensions back into the mainstream." Also targeting the "wealthiest," François Bayrou announced "a solidarity contribution" created to make the highest incomes contribute to the national effort, recalling the government's desire to "fight against the abusive optimization of non-productive assets." Thus, François Bayrou assured that he wanted to "ask little of those who have little and more of those who have more."

And there you have it, two public holidays are being skipped. With a view to "getting France back to work" , François Bayrou also put on the table the elimination of two public holidays: Easter Monday - "which has no religious significance" - and May 8th "in a month of May which has become a veritable Swiss cheese where people jump from bridge to viaduct of holidays" . Enough to bring in "several billion" to the State coffers, "simply because the Nation will be working" . But the Prime Minister said he was open to the possibility of putting other public holidays through the wringer, "if other ideas arise".

2026, a blank year. After discussing the savings potential for Social Security, François Bayrou confirmed the implementation of a blank year in 2026 on the tax scale, social benefits, and retirement pensions. The same rule applies to ministries, where "there will be no general or categorical revaluation." "It's a collective effort that concerns all categories of French people, and this rule will be to not spend more in 2026 than in 2025. No less, but no more for any of us," he explained. He also specified that these decisions will save 7 billion euros.

Regarding healthcare spending, François Bayrou wants a five billion euro effort. After emphasizing that we "are and must be proud of our healthcare system," the Prime Minister warns of the risk of an "automatic drift" that is "unsustainable." He proposes limiting this increase in healthcare spending by half: "we must collectively make an effort of around five billion euros." The Prime Minister details a few avenues: "a thorough reform of the care" of long-term conditions to move away from 100% reimbursement of certain medications, and the fight against the "drift" in sick leave.

The State is at the forefront of this debt reduction plan, with spending frozen in 2026. To achieve these planned €44 billion efforts, François Bayrou announced that " the State will set an example and stabilize its spending and even reduce its standard of living" : it will not have to spend more in 2026 than in 2025, "with the exception of the increase in the debt burden and additional spending for the armed forces budget. " All ministries, without exception, "will be united in this collective effort." Some costly projects may then be "delayed by 6 months." The head of government further details his action plan: he announces the non-replacement of one in three civil servants retiring, the elimination of more than 1,000 jobs in "unproductive agencies which disperse the action of the State" and the elimination of 3,000 civil servant posts in 2026 "excluding student teacher posts created as part of the teacher reform ."

Towards a return to a balanced budget in 2029? The head of government put forward "a plural plan to return to a balanced debt over four years" , praising a "realistic and achievable" measure. While the deficit was 5.8% in 2024 , François Bayrou asserts that the target of 5.4% this year will be reached. Then he aims for "4.6% in 2026, 4.1% in 2027, 3.4% in 2028 and finally 2.8% in 2029" . Stressing that this objective is just below the sacrosanct 3% European target, the Prime Minister said that "it is not chosen at random: it is the threshold from which, in a country like ours, the debt no longer increases" .

The Prime Minister outlines two ways to curb the debt. François Bayrou unveils two plans that "must form a coherent whole" and "stop the harmful spiral" in which France currently finds itself. First, "a plan to say stop to the debt," a plan based on five principles and which must restore balance over four years. At the same time, the head of government announces another plan, "to say production forward."

"We have become addicted to public spending." After his preamble, the Prime Minister revealed figures that illustrate the warning he had just issued. "Our country's debt represents more than 3,300 billion euros," he stated, while stressing that "this debt represents more than a year of everything our country has produced in all its agricultural, industrial, intellectual activities, in the trade, services, health and care sectors . " "We have become addicted to public spending," he continued. According to him, the level of debt is increasing by "5,000 euros per second." It is "late" to act, "but there is still time," he insisted.

François Bayrou lays the groundwork before the painful one. As a preamble to his speech, the Prime Minister launched into a long explanation of France's financial situation - "it's been more than 50 years since our country, across the political spectrum, presented a balanced budget" -, then of the functioning of the debt - "a curse that has no way out", before invoking the dark memory of Greece's bankruptcy - led by Prime Minister Tspiras "at the head of a coalition of the left and the far left". A story to prepare minds for the harsh announcements that are likely to follow. "This is the last stop before the cliff," he dramatized.

The shields are already up. The Prime Minister promised to AFP not to let any "dust" of spending "under the carpet." But, politically, his base of support, which he will gather after his presentation this Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. at Matignon, appears more fragile than ever. Everyone on the chessboard has laid down their red lines, even before this presentation. In the National Rally, which has positioned itself as the arbiter of censure after overthrowing the Barnier government in December, MP and member of the party leadership, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, promised to overthrow the government in the event of a tax increase, or even a budget freeze ("a blank year"), another way, according to him , "to steal money from people." On the side of La France Insoumise, the blank year would be "a red year for the French" and "the same causes will produce the same effects," warned the movement's coordinator, Manuel Bompard, who also voted for censure in December. For Socialist MP Philippe Brun, "what would be unacceptable" is that "the richest […] are totally exempt from efforts."

Towards two fewer public holidays? According to the latest information from Le Parisien , confirmed by two ministerial and parliamentary sources to AFP, the Prime Minister could announce this Tuesday the elimination of two public holidays, such as Whit Monday , a day of solidarity since 2004. It is still unclear which ones these would be. On Sunday, the newspaper La Tribune had already outlined this possibility.

After-sales service is already scheduled for this evening on France 2. After François Bayrou's presentation of the bill this Tuesday afternoon, his Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard , will provide after-sales service on the set of the 8 p.m. news on the second channel.

François Bayrou the loudspeaker. A bonus for seniors, a referendum on public finances, the migration issue with Algeria... While some projects have made good progress, others, announced with great fanfare by the Prime Minister, seem to remain a dead letter. Since his installation at Matignon in December, François Bayrou has indeed taken to trumpeting the urgency, but has a habit of postponing, or even abandoning, the projects he initiates. Read our article below.

Another budgetary world is possible. François Bayrou has repeatedly stated it in every tone: France's financial situation is now catastrophic. And for good reason: since 2017 and the election of Emmanuel Macron to the presidency, the deficit has risen from 3.4% of GDP in 2017 to 5.8% in 2024. France is now one of the most indebted countries in the Eurozone – 113% of GDP, or €3.3 trillion. But contrary to the government's claims, this slide is not linked to a "drift in public spending," the Economic Outlook Observatory (OFCE) recently pointed out. On the contrary, it has remained stable over the period. It is revenue that has decreased, at the "government's discretion," notably with tax cuts and tax breaks for businesses.

40 billion euros to be found, really? Antoine Bozio, director of the Institute of Public Policy, talks to Libération about this figure, which has become a totem of the government's tightening of the screws, but which nevertheless rests on very vague foundations. The man, who is also a lecturer at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and an associate professor at PSE-Paris School of Economics, examines more broadly the avenues mentioned by the Prime Minister for reducing the deficit by 2026. Read our interview here .

Bayrou's moment of reckoning. The Prime Minister will unveil his budgetary guidelines this Tuesday afternoon, with the aim of reducing the budget deficit after its soaring budget. The press will meet at 4 p.m. on Avenue de Ségur in Paris's 7th arrondissement, where some of the Prime Minister's offices are located. According to AFP, François Bayrou is expected to speak for 45 minutes, before several of his ministers involved in the budget: Eric Lombard (Economy), Catherine Vautrin (Labor, Health and Solidarity), Amélie de Montchalin (Public Accounts), François Rebsamen (Regional Planning), and Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (Labor and Employment). The Prime Minister has also invited all the parliamentary group leaders.