France's Socialists have threatened to topple the government by Monday if their budget conditions are not met, saying on Friday they would file a no-confidence bill early next week if billionaires are not forced to pay more tax.
"We have made an effort not to censure the prime minister, but so far we have not seen any sign of a willingness to compromise," Socialist party leader Olivier Faure told BFM on Friday. "If there is no change by Monday, it's all over."
Given the arithmetic of France's starkly divided parliament, the Socialists have the power to topple Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's weak minority government if they partner with the far-left and the far-right, which have said they want to oust him.
Lecornu had managed to win Socialist support by pledging to scrap a landmark pension reform, but the left clearly believes it can extract greater concessions as talks to pass the tax and revenue component of the 2026 budget began on Friday on the floor of the National Assembly.
Faure, whose party has long argued for a billionaires' tax that the government has been reluctant to include, said the current bill unfairly targeted retirees, young people, and families.
"It's unbearable. We cannot ask these segments of the population - working-class and middle-class people - to continue making sacrifices while the wealthiest are not contributing," he said, adding the budget should aim to find between 15 billion and 20 billion euros ($17 billion and $23 billion) in additional revenue.
The threat of more instability is worrying for France's economy, with French business activity declining faster than expected in October, according to data released on Friday.
Moody's could well downgrade French debt in a ratings decision later on Friday, just a week after S&P Global handed France, the euro zone's second-biggest economy, a surprise downgrade.
Lecornu is under mounting pressure to trim down France's deficit, the euro zone's largest, but faces major pushback from opponents over how to achieve savings. He aims to put a more than 30 billion euro squeeze on the budget next year to get the fiscal deficit down to 4.7% of economic output.
A formal vote on the income part of the budget is scheduled for November 4, before the bill moves on to the conservatives-held Senate.
