French government falls on no-confidence vote; snap elections called for June

PARIS — The French government fell Tuesday evening after the National Assembly passed a motion of no confidence by a margin of just three votes, toppling Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's minority cabinet over its contested 2026 supplementary budget and forcing President Emmanuel Macron to call snap legislative elections for June 14.

The motion, filed jointly by deputies from La France Insoumise and backed by the Rassemblement National, secured 292 votes — three more than the 289 required — after a tense five-hour debate in the Palais Bourbon. It had been tabled in protest over the executive's use of Article 49.3 to push through a budget that includes €14 billion in spending cuts, a partial freeze on civil service hiring, and a 0.8-point increase in the CSG social levy.

The decisive blow came from a bloc of roughly two dozen Les Républicains deputies who, despite late-afternoon negotiations at Matignon, broke with the government over a provision freezing pension indexation through 2027. The Socialist group, led by Boris Vallaud, voted with the motion after walking out of budget talks last Thursday.

"This budget asked the French middle class to pay for the failures of a government that no longer commands a majority anywhere — not in this chamber, not in the country," Mr. Vallaud said in remarks on the Assembly floor moments before the vote.

National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet confirmed the result from the chair, calling the vote "a moment of gravity for our institutions."