(Bloomberg) -- The danger of a cut to France’s credit rating is adding to the challenges facing President Emmanuel Macron as he’s forced to juggle his budget in the run-up to June’s European Union elections. 

Fitch Ratings and Moody’s are both due to update their assessments of French debt on April 26, while S&P Global Ratings’s view will come on May 31. Voters then go to the polls across the EU in early June with surveys suggesting that in France Macron is on track to suffer a drubbing from his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Fitch already downgraded France to AA- from AA a year ago and S&P has a negative outlook on its evaluation due to Macron’s struggles to rein in the country’s budget deficit in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The French finance ministry said Wednesday that the budget shortfall this year will be bigger than previously forecast as it announced plans for an additional €10 billion ($11 billion) of savings. 

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has been pushing for an amended budget before the summer break in order to get the public finances back on track. But Macron rejected that proposal due to concerns that it could hand further ammunition to Le Pen and other rivals ahead of the EU vote, according to a person familiar with their exchanges. 

Read More: France Is Struggling to Pay for Ukraine Aid as Budget Stretched

Le Maire has privately called for more cuts to bring the deficit down to 4.9% this year, compared to the updated target of 5.1% unveiled Wednesday, the person said. While the finance chief presided over vast spending during the Covid pandemic, he’s now concerned about the risks posed by France’s public debt burden, which was around 112% of GDP at the end of last year. 

France’s budget problems are hampering Macron’s efforts to take the lead in Europe on a range of issues from support for Ukraine via the revival of the defense industry to the completion of the European banking union. 

According to the finance ministry, it intends to find around €5 billion of savings from state administrations, €2.5 billion from local authorities and to raise €2.5 billion from a windfall tax on energy companies and new levies on share buybacks. The government has so far ruled out raising taxes on individuals and corporations, but it’s working on a reform of unemployment benefits.

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