French MPs and senators unanimously approved yesterday a special bill that will provide temporary funding for the state before the resumption in January of debates on the adoption of the 2026 budget, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
This special law is expected to allow the state to operate in the absence of a budget voted by parliament and promulgated before January 1.
The bill temporarily extends the 2025 budget. It guarantees the possibility of borrowing and limits spending to services voted in the previous year and considered key to the functioning of public services.
The special law does not cover new spending, including defense, although it has been made a priority due to the Russian threat.
Unlike The special law on finances in France allows to avoid budgetary paralysis: civil servants receive their salaries, pensions are paid, medical expenses are reimbursed. The French executive branch resorted to this tool last year after the fall of the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier in December 2024.
The vote on the special law was necessary after deep disagreements between the two chambers of parliament prevented the approval of a text on the state budget.
At the beginning of the year, parliamentarians will meet again in an attempt to agree on a law on state financing. France is facing a growing debt burden, and discussions have failed to outline a path to reducing the deficit.
"In January, we will have to provide the country with a budget as quickly as possible, which "will have to meet the 5% (of GDP) deficit target and finance our priorities," President Emmanuel Macron warned on Monday.
"In January, we must have a budget, and our deficit must be brought below 5% of GDP in 2026," Prime Minister Sebastien Le Corneille said yesterday. "I am still convinced that this is possible, if political calculations are put aside, parliament will assume its responsibilities, the government too," added Le Corneille, who is under pressure, mainly from his own camp, to resort to Article 49.3 of the constitution.
If parliament fails to vote on the budget in January, this will increase pressure on the government to use this text, which allows the adoption of a law without a vote - an option rejected by Le Corneille at the insistence of the Socialists.