France ended 2025 as it began: without budgets and without political consensus. However, Emmanuel Macron has promised the French that 2026 will be a “productive” year, in which he will ensure that several important projects are completed before the end of his second term, which will conclude in 2027, after 10 years in power.
Despite the purposes, Macron governs under a historical unpopularity and a fragmented National Assembly, a consequence of its failed dissolution in June 2024, which makes it difficult to carry out these “important projects.” A political blockade that, until now, has made the approval of the 2026 budgets impossible, forcing the Government to extend those for 2025.
During his Christmas speech, the French president stated that it was “essential” that the Government and Parliament begin to work “in the first weeks of 2026” to “build agreements” that will allow “providing the nation with a budget.” A responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, who must begin negotiations as soon as possible with the political groups to reach a budget agreement.
All this just a few months before municipal electionswhich are presented as the definitive test before the 2027 presidential elections, and in a context of uncontrolled public debt that reached 117% of GDP.
Test before the presidential elections
The local elections, which will take place on March 15 and 22, 2026, They will be the last opportunity for political forces to create or break dynamics before the race to the Elysee Palace.
In recent years, the focus has been on National Regrouping (RN) and La Francia Insumisaparties that have generated a great polarization in the country. Although in 2020, the far right failed to break its barrier at the local level, maintaining its strongholds and taking control of Perpinyà, the young Jordan Bardella It has significant popularity in the polls that predicts good results for the party in these municipal elections.
At the other extreme, La Francia Insumisa hopes to gain ground on the Le Pen’s far-right, while the Socialist party is looking for a new reorientation strategy after breaking with the rebels this last year. This separation is viewed by some with concern due to the fragility of the New Popular Fronthe cordon sanitaire created in the 2024 legislative elections to stop the extreme right. However, others believe it could be an opportunity for the socialists to reach new alliances and retain control of important cities such as Paris or Marseille, but also recover others, like Metz.
The electoral campaign began months ago and has been marked by the suspension of the pension reform, and by the threat of environmentalists not to vote in favor of the controversial budget text presented by Lecornu. Budgets that also condition these municipal elections, whose cost of nearly 200 million euros is not included in the current special budget extension law, approved days before Christmas. Hence the urgency of finding a consensus to move forward with the 2026 accounts.
Goodbye social media, welcome military service
This 2026 will also be marked by other priorities focused on young people. Macron insisted during his Christmas speech on continuing to work on the end of life law, as “promised to do in 2022”, which is waiting to be examined by the Senate starting January 20.
The president addressed the return from voluntary military servicepresented a few weeks ago in Grenoble, and expressed his intention to prohibit social networks for those under 15 years of agewith the aim of “protecting” them from the dangers of screens. This bill, which must be debated at the beginning of the year in the National Assembly, aims to prohibit any social network that allows access to minors under 16 years of age. A measure justified by the risks that screens and some social networks entail, such as exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying or the sleep problems they generate among young people.
In addition, this bill will also include a ban on mobile phones in institutes, as already exists in schools.
Calm the unions and the streets
In the country of revolution, another of the challenges that Macron’s Government faces for 2026 is to calm the tension in the streets; the loss of purchasing power of the French, the rising cost of living, and the fear of new reforms and cuts They feed an increasingly unbreathable climate.
The unions maintain the pulse with the Government in the face of a persistent inflationlos stagnant wages and the job insecurity. No sector is safe from discontent; Since this Monday, French farmers have returned to the roads with roadblocks and protests in front of town halls due to the precariousness of the sector, the arrival of the agreement with the Mercosurand the latest controversy related to the sacrifice of dozens of animals contaminated by the dermatosis nodular.
The demonstrations extend to healthcare sectorwhere the Private doctors will also start on January 5 an indefinite strike to protest against the social security budgets, approved on December 23, since they consider that these policies “trample” the profession and endanger the freedom of exercise.
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