PARIS, Dec 24 (NNN-XINHUA) – Lawmakers in France’s National Assembly and Senate, yesterday, adopted a “special law” proposed by the government, to extend the 2025 budget into next year, before resuming work on a final 2026 budget in January.
The move followed the failure of a joint committee of lawmakers from the National Assembly and the Senate on Dec 19, to reach a compromise on the country’s 2026 state budget, raising the prospect that France would enter the new year without a fully adopted budget.
Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, had earlier said that, the government would not resort to Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows legislation to be adopted without a parliamentary vote and has been used in previous years to push budgets through a divided parliament.
Lecornu, speaking last night, at Matignon, the French prime minister’s office, stressed that, France must have a state budget in place in Jan, while reiterating the government’s objective of reducing the public deficit to below five percent of gross domestic product in 2026.
France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, is under pressure to rein in its deficit and soaring debt, but efforts have been hampered by a political deadlock.– NNN-XINHUA