The National Assembly on the evening of Nov. 4 rejected the revenue part of the 2027 state budget by 458 votes to none. Five weeks of amendments created a text that no one supported. Budget Minister David Amiel told the chamber that the bill as amended would have carried a deficit of €177.1 billion, €20.7 billion more than the government’s draft, taking the public deficit from the 5% of GDP the government promised to 5.9%.

The government’s original text goes to the Senate, after which the two chambers attempt a compromise. Since a vote in the Assembly is now ruled out, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s remaining routes are Article 49.3 or waiting out the constitutional 70-day limit, which falls at midnight on Dec. 17, after which the budget can be put through by ordinance. This is the same budget Moody’s conditioned its rating on: on Oct. 24 the agency kept France at Aa3 with a negative outlook, put public debt at 119% of GDP and rising to 122% next year, expected the deficit to land near 5.2% rather than 5%, and said “fragmentation of France’s political landscape will continue to impair” the legislature and that rapid consolidation is unlikely given “social tensions.”