France’s Cour des comptes warned that the country now carries the euro area’s largest budget deficit and must find €105 billion in savings by 2029 to avoid what its president Pierre Moscovici called “a choice between an effort now and forced austerity later.” Presenting its annual public-finance report on 2 July, the audit court urged “very demanding” measures after spending overruns in 2024 and questioned optimistic growth assumptions for the rest of the decade. The alarm intensifies pressure on Prime Minister François Bayrou, who intends to unveil the draft 2026 budget in mid-July. The government is chasing about €40 billion of savings for next year, but divisions are widening over whether higher taxes should form part of the package. National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet said “no tax increase can be ruled out,” while business lobby AFEP demanded an “impôt-free year,” and opposition conservative leader Laurent Wauquiez declared that 100 percent of rebalancing must come from spending cuts. One proposed lever—trimming the state’s labyrinth of agencies—also lost momentum. A Senate commission of inquiry concluded on 3 July that abolishing or merging agencies would yield at most about €540 million a year, contradicting the €2-to-€3 billion figure cited by Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin and undercutting cross-party claims of quick, painless savings. President Emmanuel Macron has called a meeting of key ministers on 7 July to review the budget groundwork, amid open disputes within the fragile governing coalition over taxes, green spending and deficit targets. Opponents are threatening censure motions if fresh levies appear, leaving Bayrou little room to reconcile the audit court’s warning with the political red lines ahead of the Bastille Day deadline for his fiscal blueprint.