Has the PS reneged on its guarantees on the 2026 price range, because the “rebels” declare? | EUROtoday

Has the Socialist Party (PS) renounced its ambitions concerning the state price range in trade for some minimal concessions from the federal government? This is the place defended by the chief of the La France Insoumise (LFI) deputies within the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, interviewed on Franceinfo, Tuesday January 20, the day after the announcement by Sébastien Lecornu of his intention to make use of 49.3 to have the price range adopted with out a vote, with the tacit approval of the Socialists.

If, on the proper, the copy submitted by the Prime Minister was repeatedly described as “socialist budget”,M^me Panot, for his half, denounced the hole between the compromises accepted by Olivier Faure’s get together – together with his dedication to not censor the federal government – ​​and the counter-budget defended just a few months in the past by his deputies. “How many of these major proposals that had been made by the Socialist Party were included in this budget? Zero “, insisted the member for Val-de-Marne. She took as examples the establishment of the Zucman tax on very high assets or the repeal of the pension reform, once presented by the socialists as “red lines”.

Should we speak of renunciation, or can socialists, on the contrary, boast of important achievements? To respond, Les Décoders scrutinized the PS counter-budget, published at the end of August 2025, as well as its declarations of intent, and compared them to the compromises sealed in the latest version of the budget, the first measures of which were revealed by Mr. Lecornu. If the government has clearly taken a step towards the center left, the main totems of the socialists seem, ultimately, few in number in this text.

Measures dear to the PS absent from the final copy

At first glance, the PS seems to have accumulated setbacks as the central measures of its counter-budget seem absent from the text defended by the government. On the taxation of the richest, first of all, which will not be increased in 2027. Exit the Zucman tax, which the rose party had first presented as its first condition of non-censorship. Ditto for the reestablishment of the wealth tax (ISF), abolished in 2018 by Emmanuel Macron in favor of the real estate wealth tax (IFI), and which the socialists wanted to reintroduce by refocusing it on “so-called non-professional financial fortune” – a proposal which was largely opposed by the presidential majority and the National Rally in the Hemicycle.

No increase in the tax on Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft), these American digital behemoths, whose rate the socialists intended to double, for an annual return of 700 million euros. Abandoned, the project to tax holding companies, these structures which the wealthiest use massively to avoid tax. However, this setback is partly offset by the end of the exemption for “personal property” under the Dutreil pact, which allows the transfer of a business with certain tax advantages and under which certain individuals housed property unrelated to the business. The practice will now be banned, which should have an indirect effect on the taxation of holding companies, where personal property is usually housed.

By attacking the Dutreil pact, the government is responding to a direct request from the Socialists, who also had in their sights similar reforms on other tax loopholes considered particularly costly or ineffective. At the top of these is the research tax credit. However, it will be maintained as is in the final text, just like the advantageous tax treatment of life insurance in the context of inheritance, which the socialists wanted to reform.

In addition to these obvious disavowals, certain PS victories appear only partial. The most emblematic obviously concerns pension reform. The socialists called for the opening of a dialogue with the social partners with a view to eventually reducing the pension age to 62; they finally obtained the freezing of the departure age at 62 years and 9 months until 2028, allowing 3.5 million people to benefit from an early departure compared to the Borne reform. The PS, however, assures that “the fight continues” to avoid the permanent reduction of the legal age to 64 years.

Several concessions from the executive to the socialists

On the other hand, some of the adjustments to the finance bill announced on Friday January 16 by Sébastien Lecornu more or less directly meet the demands of the PS, particularly on the purchasing power aspect.

The government notably approved the unfreezing of the income tax scale, which was mentioned in the socialist counter-budget and which the right also demanded. A development which thus makes it possible to neutralize the effects of inflation on the level of taxation and to prevent French people who were previously not taxable from becoming so.

Without corresponding to the letter of the PS counter-budget, other concessions from the government will contribute to “support the working and middle classes and workers”as the party demanded. This is the case of renouncing the reduction of the activity bonus, which should even ultimately increase for low-income workers. But also the extension to all students of the 1 euro meal in university restaurants, the withdrawal of the reform of the income tax reduction for retirees, or the abandonment of the savings planned on allowances for people with disabilities and housing allowances.

Finally, on the major subject of corporate taxation, Sébastien Lecornu’s latest copy takes a step towards the rose party, which asks in its counter-budget to “enlist the help of large companies”. Thus, the surcharge on the profits of large groups is renewed in 2026 at a level similar to that of 2025, for an expected revenue of 7.3 billion euros, while the government initially intended to divide it by two. The government is also renouncing the reduction in the contribution on the added value of companies, which was demanded by employers to reduce their production taxes.

At the end of this examination, it appears that the PS did not succeed, in exchange for its non-censorship, in integrating several of the emblematic measures it defended into the 2026 budget. We can also consider that several concessions made by the executive respect the spirit if not the letter of the party’s wishes. Is this state of affairs enough to say that the socialists have denied themselves? Yes, according to LFI, which cultivates a maximalist position supposed to better support left-wing values; no, would answer the socialists, who claim to forge compromises, guarantees in their eyes of progress, even modest ones.