{"id":53082,"date":"2025-09-13T14:38:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/frances-new-pm-lecornu-scraps-holiday-cuts-amid-fiscal-pressure-and-fitch-downgrade\/53082\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:38:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:38:21","slug":"frances-new-pm-lecornu-scraps-holiday-cuts-amid-fiscal-pressure-and-fitch-downgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/frances-new-pm-lecornu-scraps-holiday-cuts-amid-fiscal-pressure-and-fitch-downgrade\/53082\/","title":{"rendered":"France&#8217;s New PM Lecornu Scraps Holiday Cuts Amid Fiscal Pressure and Fitch Downgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>France&#39;s new Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, has abandoned his predecessor&#39;s unpopular proposal to cut two public holidays, a move aimed at avoiding further public and political instability.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The decision comes just days after Fitch downgraded France&#39;s sovereign credit rating to A+ \u2013 its lowest level on record \u2013 intensifying pressure on Lecornu to address the nation&#39;s rising budget deficit, which stood at 114% of GDP in Q1 2025.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Lecornu, who took office after his predecessor lost a confidence vote over austerity measures, now faces the formidable challenge of forming a cabinet and drafting a 2026 budget that can pass a deeply divided parliament.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The government must find &quot;creative ways&quot; to trim its budget deficit without resorting to politically contentious measures, as rising interest rates directly impact state finances and household budgets.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>France&#39;s newly appointed Prime Minister, <strong>Sebastien Lecornu<\/strong>, announced on Saturday that he is dropping his predecessor&#39;s contentious proposal to eliminate two public holidays. The move, initially intended to help reduce the nation&#39;s budget deficit, was met with widespread public disapproval and contributed to the downfall of the previous government.<\/p>\n<p>Lecornu&#39;s decision arrives at a critical juncture for France, coming just days after credit rating agency <strong>Fitch<\/strong> downgraded the country&#39;s sovereign credit score to <strong>A+<\/strong>, marking its lowest level on record. Reacting to the downgrade, Lecornu stated, &quot;We are paying for the instability,&quot; underscoring the severe fiscal challenges facing his nascent administration.<\/p>\n<p>The former Prime Minister, <strong>Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou<\/strong>, was ousted in a confidence vote over his budget cut plans, which included the holiday reductions and aimed to save approximately <strong>\u20ac44 billion<\/strong>. France&#39;s public debt reached <strong>\u20ac3,345.8 billion<\/strong>, or <strong>114% of its gross domestic product<\/strong>, at the end of the first quarter of 2025, highlighting the urgent need for fiscal consolidation.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Lecornu faces the daunting task of forming a cabinet and drafting a <strong>2026 budget<\/strong> that can navigate a deeply fragmented parliament. With no single political bloc holding a clear majority, the government is vulnerable and unstable, making it imperative for Lecornu to find &quot;creative ways&quot; to work with rival parties to pass a debt-slimming budget. He has called for &quot;modern, frank and high-level parliamentary discussions&quot; to achieve this.<\/p>\n<p>The pressure is further compounded by <em>rising interest rates<\/em>, which directly impact state finances and the lives of French households. Lecornu&#39;s early tenure is thus marked by an urgent need to stabilize France&#39;s economic standing and ensure a &quot;sound financial trajectory&quot; for the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways France&#39;s new Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, has abandoned his predecessor&#39;s unpopular proposal to cut two public holidays, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[4765,5070,5073,5962,6132,7888,8445,10680,10681],"class_list":["post-53082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-fiscal-policy","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-france","tag-fitch-ratings","tag-sovereign-debt","tag-budget-deficit","tag-political-instability","tag-sebastien-lecornu","tag-public-holidays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}