2025 Budget: Parliament for the abolition of the Universal National Service, deemed too costly
The Universal National Service (SNU), an ambitious project of President Emmanuel Macron, was excluded from the 2025 budget following votes by the Finance Committees of the National Assembly and the Senate on Wednesday, October 30. A rejection motivated by the costs deemed prohibitive and disappointing results, highlighted by the Court of Auditors.
Launched in 2019, the SNU planned to involve each age group in a "general interest mission" program and a "cohesion stay", with varied activities and patriotic ceremonies. Although it was a campaign promise of Emmanuel Macron, with the aim of generalizing it in 2026, the SNU is today widely criticized for its costs estimated at between 3,5 and 5 billion euros per year.
The senators' position: a "broken" system
On Wednesday evening, the Senate, traditionally moderate and generally allied with the Barnier government, voted in committee to reduce the SNU by 100 million euros in the 2025 budget. The rapporteur for Youth appropriations, Socialist senator Éric Jeansannetas, stressed that, after five years of experimentation, the SNU does not seem to have fulfilled its initial objectives. Senators are now wondering whether the plan to generalize the SNU remains relevant.
In the Assembly, the left leads the attack against the “presidential gadget”
On the Assembly side, the left managed to have an amendment adopted that reallocates the 128 million euros planned for the SNU to amateur sport. Jean-Claude Raux, an ecologist deputy, called the SNU a costly and ineffective "presidential gadget". The socialist Pierrick Courbon concurred, speaking of a "budgetary heresy" that had failed to reach its target audience. The adoption of this amendment by the left was facilitated by the notable absence of right-wing deputies and Macronists at the time of the vote.
The Minister of Sports and Youth, Gil Avérous, recently acknowledged that current resources did not allow for a generalisation of the SNU in 2025. Interviewed on Sud Radio, he expressed doubts about its implementation even in 2026, while specifying that a definitive suppression was not yet envisaged. However, he admitted that a review of the programme now seemed necessary.
The debates will resume in public session in December, and if the elected members of the Senate confirm this suppression, the future of the SNU could be definitively sealed.
