Closing summary
French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu told parliament on Tuesday he would back suspending an unpopular reform that raised the age of retirement from 62 to 64 until presidential polls in 2027.
Lecornu said on Tuesday in a policy speech at the national assembly that the law, a flagship policy of French president Emmanuel Macron, would be put on pause until after the next presidential election.
“I will propose to parliament this autumn that we suspend the 2023 pension reform until the presidential election. There will be no increase in the retirement age from now until January 2028,” he promised lawmakers during his policy speech, responding to a key request from the Socialists, a swing group in parliament crucial to his cabinet’s survival.
Lecornu also asked lawmakers on Tuesday not to use the vote on the budget as a pretext to vote his government out. “There is no longer any pretext for a no-confidence motion,” he said. Earlier in the day, Lecornu had met his new cabinet to discuss France’s draft 2026 budget that lawmakers will examine over the next 70 days.
Lecornu’s new government approved a draft budget in a meeting with Macron, who warned that any vote to topple Lecornu’s cabinet would force him to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and the far-left France Unbowed have already submitted no-confidence motions which will be debated on Thursday.
The Socialists said they will not back those motions, giving them little chance of succeeding, but had said they would file their own if Lecornu did not immediately suspend the reform that raised the retirement age.
The French economist Philippe Aghion, named one of the three winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday, said he hoped a path out of France’s budget mess could be found. “I hope there will be a compromise because the tragedy for France is to experience political instability,” he told reporters in Paris, adding:
If there is another censure, it would be dramatic for France. Our interest rates would continue to rise, our spread would continue to rise, it would be dramatic. We must absolutely avoid censure and still arrive at a budget.
His comments came as the independent fiscal watchdog warned on Tuesday that the French government’s 2026 budget plans were based on rosy economic assumptions and its belt-tightening measures may fall short or never even take shape.
Lecornu told his new cabinet on Tuesday that the political crisis the country is going through is not yet a regime crisis, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said on Tuesday.
She said that Lecornu had also said that “we are capable of taking action, but the government will not do just anything”.
Read John Henley’s story here:
Here are some other developments in Europe that were covered in today’s blog:
The French government will discuss an institutional reform for the overseas territory of New Caledonia by year end, Lecornu told lawmakers on Tuesday. Lecornu said: “The government will propose discussion of this text before the end of the year so that New Caledonians can be consulted in spring 2026.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged leaders and the international community on Tuesday to “not lose the momentum for advancing peace” after the progress made in the Middle East with the Gaza ceasefire deal. “The war in Europe can also be brought to an end,” he said, adding that the leadership of the US and Ukraine’s partners was of the “utmost importance”.
Zelenskyy announced on Tuesday that he will travel to the US this week for talks on the potential US provision of long-range weapons, after Donald Trump said he might supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles. Zelenskyy said he would visit Washington and meet Trump on Friday, adding that he would also meet defence and energy companies and members of Congress.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it welcomed Trump’s desire to focus on the search for a peace deal to end the fighting in Ukraine after achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and hoped he would be able to push Kyiv towards a settlement.
Russian forces struck a UN aid convoy in the partially occupied southern Kherson region of Ukraine on Tuesday, Kyiv and the UN said, adding there were no casualties in the attack. The United Nations said its convoy of four vehicles was clearly marked and came under attack from Russian drones and artillery while delivering aid to the frontline town of Bilozerka. There was no immediate reaction from Moscow.
Thousands of workers marched through Brussels, after unions called a national strike that grounded planes and stopped much public transport in the Belgian capital. Belgium has experienced several national and sectoral strikes since a new right-leaning government took office in February pledging to cut spending, in order to curb the country’s spiralling debt.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday it had opened a criminal case against exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing him of creating a “terrorist organisation” and of plotting to violently seize power. The FSB said it was investigating more than 20 other people as part of the same case, including prominent dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, ex-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and leading economists Sergei Aleksashenko and Sergei Guriev.
Zelenskyy revoked the citizenship of Odesa mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov on Tuesday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding that Trukhanov has Russian citizenship. Trukhanov, who has been the mayor of Ukraine’s biggest port city since 2014, has previously denied holding Russian citizenship.
The European Union is seeking to coordinate with the United States and other G7 partners a response to tighter Chinese controls on the export of rare-earth minerals, trade ministers and officials from the bloc said on Tuesday.
The Council of Europe said it was alarmed on Tuesday over the “large numbers” of people being arrested in the United Kingdom for their support of banned pro-Palestinian organisation Palestine Action. In a letter to UK interior minister Shabana Mahmood, its human rights commissioner Michael O’Flaherty said London needed to conduct a “comprehensive review” of its policing of such protests.
Moldova’s pro-European ruling party will nominate financier Alexandru Munteanu to be the country’s new prime minister, the head of the party, Igor Grosu, said on social media on Tuesday. Munteanu, an economist who also founded an investment firm, has not previously held political office.
An explosion at a farmhouse near Verona killed three police officers and injured at least 13 others, officials said on Tuesday. Police were attempting to conduct an eviction when the house blew up overnight in Castel d’Azzano, in northern Italy, in what is suspected to be an intentional act of violence.
The French government will discuss an institutional reform for the overseas territory of New Caledonia by year end, prime minister Sébastien Lecornu told lawmakers on Tuesday. Lecornu said:
The government will propose discussion of this text before the end of the year so that New Caledonians can be consulted in spring 2026.
