The French National Assembly has rejected a motion of censure against the Lecorni government tabled by United France.

271 MPs voted in favour of the proposal, while 289 votes were needed to adopt it.

However, although Sebastian Le Corneille has managed to survive politically, analysts expect the next few months to be difficult as the National Assembly prepares to start debating the 2026 budget.

The leadership of the Socialist Party, which chose not to participate in the impeachment motion, has announced that it will use the budget debate to try to overturn many of its projections.

Today’s vote is seen as the latest episode in the worst political crisis in France in decades, as minority governments try to pass budgets aimed at reducing the deficit.

As Reuters notes, reform of France’s generous pension system has been a political thorn in the side of François Mitterrand since François Mitterrand lowered the retirement age from 65 to 60 in 1982. The average retirement age is 60.7 years, compared to the OECD average of 64.4 years. At the same time, Macron was planning to raise the retirement age to 64. However, the implementation of the measure will be delayed by Le Corneille.