PARIS—France’s finance minister said the government is prepared to exercise special constitutional powers and circumvent Parliament to pass billions in spending cuts if negotiations stall over next year’s budget.
In an interview, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said he was willing to negotiate on all aspects of the budget, but he has two red lines—sticking to a maximum budget deficit of 5% of gross domestic product and avoiding any changes that hurt growth.
Lescure laid out the government’s strategy for steering the measures through a National Assembly that is fragmented and warring ahead of next spring’s presidential election. If a majority of lawmakers are ultimately unwilling to pass the budget, Lescure said, the government is ready to invoke clause 49.3 of the French constitution, which allows the government to pass laws without a vote in the National Assembly.
“We’re going to use whatever it takes,” Lescure said.
Investors are worried the paralysis of France’s political system is making it impossible to rein in public spending , fueling a recent surge in the country’s borrowing costs. The budget’s 43 billion euros, roughly equivalent to $48 billion, in cuts, which Lescure detailed last week, are already drawing criticism from the race’s leading candidates, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon .
The budget negotiations are unfolding against a backdrop of nationwide student protests that began last month. Protesters are demanding the government boost spending on the education system by fixing crumbling infrastructure, reducing class sizes and hiring new teachers.
On Tuesday, more than 260,000 students, parents and teachers took to the streets as protesters blockaded hundreds of high schools. Protests turned violent in parts of the country as some demonstrators set trash cans on fire, destroyed bus stops and threw projectiles. Police responded with batons and tear gas. More than 200 students were wounded during protests, according to French authorities.
Protesters are also angry over Lescure’s budget cuts, casting them as austerity measures. The budget aims to increase education funding by €1.2 billion but also plans to cut more than 1,500 teachers’ jobs as the number of students declines.
If the government exercises clause 49.3 of the constitution, lawmakers can counter by calling for a vote of no confidence that, if passed, would oust the government and kill the budget. That is precisely what happened to France’s previous two prime ministers when they attempted to introduce spending cuts in recent years.
If the current government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu senses it doesn’t have the votes to survive a no-confidence motion, it still has a tool at its disposal to get the budget passed—a series of executive orders. That option is available 70 days after the bill is submitted if it still hasn’t been put to a final vote.
“That is kind of a guardrail,” Lescure said. “There’s always a fallback plan.”
A major point of contention is Lescure’s plan to lower the rate at which many pension payments are indexed to inflation. Pension payments rose 5.4% in 2024 at a cost of €15 billion, Lescure noted.
“If we don’t do anything, there’s 15 billion more to spend on pensions next year,” Lescure said.
Both Le Pen and Mélenchon are campaigning on plans to expand the 14% of GDP that France currently spends on pension payments by pushing the age of retirement to as low as 60.
Lescure said he added a special clause to the budget—after discussions with lieutenants for Le Pen and Mélenchon—that will allow the winner of the spring elections to “reverse” parts of the budget, including the measure on pensions payments.
On Tuesday, Le Pen described the government’s proposed budget as both ineffective and unfair, and said she would seek to improve it during coming budgetary negotiations. When asked whether the National Rally had red lines in the talks, however, Le Pen measured her words.
“The state of public finances and, in particular, the pressure from the bond market is such that we cannot afford to impose any restrictions,” she told a news conference.
Instead, the far-right leader outlined her goals for cleaning up the country’s finances, pledging to cut spending by €140 billion and narrow the deficit to 2.2% of GDP by 2032.
“We must act without delay, or risk losing control of our public finances, which would force our country to make choices that are socially unjust and economically suicidal,” Le Pen said.
How Le Pen will meet those targets is unclear. She wants to slash France’s contribution to the European Union and restrict social benefits for legal foreign residents. Some of her plans introduce new fiscal burdens, including a proposal to exempt French citizens under the age of 30 from paying income tax, and cut taxes on fuel and other essential goods.
In the interview, Lescure said it was in the interest of Le Pen and other candidates to let the government pass a budget soon so they can move onto their presidential campaigns. If they don’t, the budget fight could bleed into next year, fueling uncertainty and hurting economic growth.
“They’re going to be either inheriting a budget that’s sound, that’s hard, that can be changed in the details they don’t want—or no budget,” Lescure said. “And if there’s no budget, then it’s a mess.”
Write to Stacy Meichtry at Stacy.Meichtry@wsj.com and Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com
