World News: French Parliament Votes on Social Security Financing

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Wednesday, 10 December 2025 10:24

Written by Olivier Longhi

The National Assembly adopting the text on financing of Social Security marks a historic turning point in French politics: the acceptance of a compromise. The question now arises of the timing or a new recurrent political logic.

Out of chaos and disorder always comes something. Maybe that's what Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, is doing on permanent borrowed time, thought when the Social Security budget was approved by the National Assembly.

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Between concessions and multiple and varied negotiations, renunciations and ideological denials, the deputies have taken a step that is both symbolic and practical by validating the financing plan of one of the pillars of the Welfare State. But beyond the relief that the majority vote, by thirteen votes, must have given the Prime Minister, it is above all the political reality that it induces that deserves some attention.

The French parliamentarians, and France in general, which was said to be incapable of opting for compromise, finally chose, forced and forced, to resolve to it. Like our neighbours across the Rhine, or even transalpine or more broadly in the United Kingdom, the Assembly has become a new and salutary exercise for the good of the country. Has she lost her soul? Is it discredited?

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Public Interest

For the time being, no, but it has taken a big step, the one that modern democracies, or those that present themselves as such, are capable of taking in order to privilege the general interest. It is unlikely that France will wake up tomorrow to acid rain or an invasion of locusts, but it is certain, on the other hand, that it will ensure, for a time at least, a relative serenity, which is a lot in view of the current situation.

At the same time, the question arises as to whether the deputies will be able to renew the exercise. To tell the truth, and according to the popular adage, there is only the first step that costs and at the point where the country is, the ideological scruples put forward by some weigh little, if anything, compared to the political gain that this compromise represents.

Does this mean that after months of procrastination, of government responsibilities committed to the tune of 49.3, of the fall of governments barely appointed or barely installed, France has reached the age of reason, abandoning mountain fever to Gironde reason? Some would think so, opening the way to a reflection on the political and ideological future of the country. However, there are positive and negative aspects in this same reflection.

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Equation

Among the positive aspects, the idea that the compromise made and enacted turns out to be an almost infinite reservoir of political combinations capable of meeting the aspirations of the country, new or original ideological alliances. But at the same time, among the negative aspects, it exposes the possibility of integrating the far right into the new equation, which is offered a form of objective trivialization of its theses, arguing that compromise can also integrate its ideas.

This is the weakness of the compromise, it satisfies no one, but everyone is satisfied with it. By abandoning the majority Manichaeism typical of societies imbued with ancient and underlying Roman traditions, France has chosen, from time to time, a Greek or even Byzantine logic. The future will tell if France will let its nature take over or will be converted, in a political superego, to the logic of compromise.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.