France’s National Assembly backed the 2018 budget by 356 votes in favour with 175 against, and 27 abstentions. “We are going to keep our promises and do what we said,” vowed Amelie de Montchalin, who leads the MPs from Macron’s Republic On The Move (LREM) party on parliament’s finance committee. The budget includes some 15 billion euros ($17.6 billion) of spending cuts, though these, like his tax cuts, are lower than originally planned. Macron’s reforms to the wealth tax, which will now only be applicable to property, will cost an estimated three billion euros in lost revenue. LREM lawmakers unanimously backed the budget, while Socialist, communist and hard-left France Unbowed MPs voted against it, as did most Republican MPs.

Source: The Guardian November 21, 2017 18:45 UTC