The government now faces the more arduous task of passing a state budget for next year, which is a separate piece of legislation. The National Assembly’s first attempt to pass a state budget ended with all but one MP voting against the bill, which MPs had saddled with untenable and sometimes conflicting amendments.
Lawmakers from both branches of parliament will on Friday attempt to forge a compromise text during a U.S.-style conference committee in what one National Assembly official described as a “make or break” moment.
France is highly unlikely to face a government shutdown similar to what happened in the United States earlier this year as lawmakers can approve a measure carrying the 2025 budget over into next year. But such a stopgap would exacerbate the worrying financial outlook in the European Union’s second-largest economy.
France’s current fiscal plans for 2026 are now projected to carry a budget deficit to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, significantly higher than the 4.7 percent of GDP deficit initially proposed by the government and welcomed by the European Commission.
Lecornu said in October that whatever fiscal plans lawmakers agree on should not carry a budget deficit for 2026 that exceeds 5 percent of GDP.
