The era of leniency has ended. With a persistent public deficit, "high and rising" debt and, above all, political instability that complicates any robust recovery plan, the American firm Fitch resolved on Friday, September 12, to penalize France. It lowered the rating of France's public debt by one notch, from AA− to A+. Appointed prime minister on Tuesday evening, Sébastien Lecornu was not able to enjoy any honeymoon period.

France had already lost its "triple A" rating – the highest possible, signaling unshakeable financial solidity – in 2012 and 2013, depending on the rating agencies. A dozen years after that trauma, for the first time, one of the world's three leading rating agencies has stripped France of its "double A." France is now distanced from Germany, Austria, Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – the five eurozone countries still holding Fitch's "triple A." France now finds itself relegated to the same level as Estonia, Malta, Saudi Arabia and China.

The outgoing government immediately "acknowledged" the bad news. For Lecornu, the sanction could only serve as one more incentive to push for a budget agreement and clean up public finances as quickly as possible, despite lacking a majority in the Assemblée Nationale.

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