French Prime minister Sébastien Lecornu’s compromise budget has sparked a backlash among business leaders, with tax raids on big companies branded a “betrayal” of previous government promises.
Lecornu pledged on Tuesday to suspend President Emmanuel Macron’s signature pension reforms, a move that appears to have staved off a no-confidence motion from the Socialist party, while he also maintained a windfall tax on big companies.
The pensions concession from Lecornu, who was reappointed on Friday four days after resigning, helped ease concerns that France’s hung parliament would not pass a budget this year, after a prolonged political crisis that has spooked investors and raised borrowing costs.