French lawmakers pass emergency budget bill to avert government shutdown
· France 24The two houses of France's parliament passed emergency legislation on Tuesday to keep the state running in January until a proper 2026 budget can be approved by the deeply divided parliament.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu rushed to submit the legislation late on Monday after lawmakers from both houses failed last Friday to hammer out a compromise 2026 budget text over divisions about spending cuts and tax hikes.
The law, which was due to be voted on in the upper house Senate in the evening, allows the state to roll over 2025 spending limits into the new year and to collect taxes and issue debt.
"It's a bare-minimum service that responds neither to the emergencies nor to the demands of the French people," Budget Minister Amelie de Montchalin said ahead of a first vote in the lower-house National Assembly.
"Every day of the special law will be, in 2026, one day too many," she added.
Investors and ratings agencies are scrutinising France's finances as Lecornu struggles to rein in a budget deficit running at 5.4 percent of national output this year – the highest in the 20-nation euro zone.
Lecornu's minority government has little room for manoeuvre in the fractious parliament, where budget battles have already toppled three governments since President Emmanuel Macron lost his majority in a 2024 snap election.
France used emergency rollover legislation last year until a proper 2025 budget could be passed in February, which the government says cost €12 billion.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)