Paris (France) (AFP) – Under pressure from demonstrators and without financial margin, Sébastien Lecornu tries on Monday to respond to the social anger expressed for several weeks by unions and youth.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 01:58

If the Prime Minister can give a boost to the minimum wage, which is his responsibility, he does not have the power to increase other salaries and therefore relies on the social partners, whom he brings together on Monday morning for a social conference.

Mr. Lecornu will subsequently discuss in the afternoon with representatives of high school and student students, before a first committee to reform the Parcoursup guidance system, at the heart of their demands.

In a letter Friday to unions and employers, Sébastien Lecornu says he hears "the expectations" on purchasing power as much as the "concerns" of bosses about employment, and promises "concrete answers" that he will present to the press after the social conference.

“Fable of the Fountain”

“There is a little fable side of La Fontaine” for the government, pointed out the director of the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE) Xavier Timbeau on Sunday on France Culture: “After having spent ten years dismantling social dialogue, emptying the coffers, losing the majority in Parliament, winter has arrived” and “it finds itself very deprived”.

The government can increase the minimum wage "because it does not have to bear the consequences", believes the economist. It can also play on the Civil Service index, but at the risk of “compromising its possibility of achieving a budget”.

The civil service unions were not invited on Monday and will be received separately by Mr. Lecornu on Friday.

“By segmenting his responses to the social movement” between employees and high school students or between private and public sectors, the Prime Minister “deprives himself of a wind effect” and “takes the risk that the social movement takes hold over time”, warns the national secretary of Unsa, Laurent Escure.

The president of the Union of Local Businesses (U2P), Michel Picon, warned that his members would not accept "no increase in the minimum wage if the 'tax stranglehold' on businesses does not loosen".

The discontent does not weaken, with days of mobilization succeeding each week since the start of the high school movement in mid-September, marred on October 17 by unprecedented violence and looting.

Without waiting for the outcome of the social conference, an inter-union group bringing together high school, student and teacher organizations called for a new day of demonstrations on Tuesday.

"Joke"

But six months before the presidential election, without a majority or money due to degraded public finances, the government has little room for maneuver.

Several avenues are on the table: an anticipation of the automatic increase in the minimum wage on December 1, instead of January 1, a boost on this minimum wage, which has not taken place since 2012, and a gesture on the energy check intended for low-income households.

The government hopes for a ripple effect on salary negotiations which are the responsibility of the social partners: in professional sectors, where certain minimums remain lower than the minimum wage, and within companies.

But the scale of the minimum wage measure will undoubtedly not meet the demands of the unions: the CFDT is demanding an increase of 100 euros net, and the CGT around 150.

If he wants the net minimum wage to pass the 1,500 euro mark (compared to 1,478 today), the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou will not propose an increase which could "harm employment".

"A joke", growled the coordinator of La France insoumise Manuel Bompard on Sunday, because if the minimum wage automatically increases in January with inflation to 1,495 euros net, the boost would only work for five euros, "not even enough to buy a sandwich" according to him.

The main problem, points out Renaissance candidate Gabriel Attal, "is less the level of the minimum wage" than "the share of French people who are stuck at the level of the minimum wage", as the unions regularly point out.

The latter also demand that companies whose theoretical minimums are lower than the minimum wage no longer benefit from public aid.

However, employers' organizations repeat that they cannot support the combination of an increase in wages and a reduction in reductions in employer contributions.

The 2026 Social Security finance law provides for reductions, calculated on a less favorable basis in branches whose minimums remain below the minimum wage. An implementing decree could be issued soon but the unions find it ineffective because it leaves too much time for the branches to comply.

© 2026 AFP

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