Debates on the 2026 budget: "The version currently before the Assembly and the votes that have already taken place will not be the final version," the government spokesperson reminds us.

[This live coverage has now ended.] Following the Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday, October 29, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon reiterated the executive branch's opposition to the Zucman tax, including the version put forward by the Socialist Party. "This is not a position we hold out of dogmatism or a desire to block debate with the Socialists. We are deeply convinced that moving towards the Zucman tax would be bad for the French people," stated the former member of parliament for Hauts-de-Seine. "There is still time; the debates must continue calmly," she added, referring to Parliament's review of the 2026 budget . "The version currently before the National Assembly and the votes that have already taken place will not be the final version," she emphasized, since the text must then be examined by the Senate.

The schedule is likely to be disrupted. The review of the 3,762 amendments tabled on the revenue section of the 2026 budget bill is taking time and will not be completed in time for the initial schedule, which called for a vote on November 4. The preferred option at this stage is to postpone this vote and continue the debates later, after the review of the Social Security budget, which is scheduled to begin on November 4 for a vote on November 12, franceinfo has learned from concurring parliamentary sources. This information was confirmed by the chairman of the Finance Committee, Eric Coquerel (LFI), to the press at the National Assembly. This new schedule still needs to be confirmed by the Conference of Presidents of the two Houses, probably on November 12.

Bruno Retailleau considers the text "even less passable than yesterday" and denounces "fiscal madness." The president of the Les Républicains party judged that the draft budget was on Wednesday "even less passable than yesterday" by the right wing in the National Assembly, denouncing the "fiscal madness" that had gripped the chamber. "There is a virtually unprecedented tax shock," he stated on RTL radio. According to him, "the Socialist Party has taken control of the government." The former Minister of the Interior criticized an alliance between the left and the National Rally, which notably allowed for the vote on Tuesday evening on a "universal tax" on multinationals. "The tax solution, the tax solution, is in no way the solution for France. Spending must be reduced," he added.

Left-wing and National Rally MPs have approved a tax on multinational corporations. An amendment aimed at "taxing the profits of multinationals in proportion to their actual activity in France," introduced by La France Insoumise (LFI), was unexpectedly adopted in its first reading on Tuesday. This "universal tax" on multinationals, inspired by the Attac association and the economist Gabriel Zucman, could bring in €26 billion for the state budget, according to its proponents.

Members of Parliament vote to double the GAFA tax targeting tech giants. On Tuesday evening, MPs also voted to double the rate of the GAFA tax , which targets major tech companies, including Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. In committee, Macron's party members had proposed raising the tax rate from 3% to 15%, before changing their position in the plenary session and supporting a compromise of 6%.