The Senate voted this Thursday, January 16, to eliminate the budgetary appropriations allocated to the deployment of the universal national service (SNU) against the advice of the government which continues to defend this system desired by Emmanuel Macron.
The Senate dealt a blow to one of Emmanuel Macron's flagship measures: universal national service. The upper house voted this Thursday, January 16 in the evening to remove the budgetary appropriations allocated to the deployment of this program, considering its generalization “neither possible nor desirable”.
An alliance of left and right voices during the examination of the youth budget in the Senate did not make a difference. The senators largely adopted an amendment constructed in a transpartisan manner to eliminate almost the entire SNU budget (100 million euros), choosing to redirect the majority of these credits (80 million euros) to the Sports budget. , down sharply after the Olympic Games.
“After five years of experimentation, the SNU does not provide sufficient added value compared to other youth engagement policies to justify its continued deployment,” said socialist rapporteur Eric Jeansannetas.
He particularly targeted the difficulty in finding “enough centers to accommodate all young people” and above all the “tremendous” cost of generalization, estimated between 3.5 and 5 billion euros per year by the Court of Auditors, she is also very severe.
-“Developments for the start of the school year”
The Minister of Sports and Youth, Marie Barsacq, opposed this deletion, considering it “not appropriate to sacrifice the SNU for the benefit of sport”. While recognizing imperfections, she affirmed that an “interministerial working group” will be responsible for proposing “developments for the start of the school year”.
In the fall, the Finance Committee of the National Assembly also voted for the elimination of the SNU in the budget, which ensures a very large parliamentary majority for the abandonment of this system… Unless it is forced into force via 49.3 or make concessions, the government will probably have great difficulty maintaining this creation of Emmanuel Macron in its budget.
A campaign promise from the Head of State, the SNU, launched in 2019, was to be generalized to 15-17 year olds at the start of the 2026 school year, according to the promises of former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. It includes a “general interest mission” and a “cohesion stay” including sporting, cultural and intellectual activities, with days that begin with the “raising of the colors” (flag and national anthem) and wearing of the uniform .
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