Lecornu settles for crumbs and extends the budgets

Since being appointed prime minister, budgets have been a major headache for Sébastien Lecornu, to the point that finding common ground with partners has become difficult. This led to his brief resignation in October.After this brief resignation, and urged on by President Emmanuel Macron, he resumed the reins of government, assuring that he would do "everything in his power to provide France with a budget before the end of the year and respond to the everyday problems of his fellow citizens." A week before the end of the year, and in the last parliamentary session before the summer recess, the French Prime Minister acknowledged the defeat and He has had to settle for crumbs.The National Assembly approved a special law on Tuesday—presented by the executive branch on Monday—that allows the government to continue collecting taxes and allocating funds to local authorities, and authorizes the state to borrow on the markets and pay France's contribution to the budget. In short, it allows for the maintenance of a minimum level of functioning before parliamentary activity resumes in January and Lecornu can negotiate the 2026 budget with the opposition. The text, which consists of three articles, was approved unanimously: 496 votes in favor and none against. The next step will be its approval in the Senate, which is expected to do so tonight. "The least bad solution"

The government sees this option as "the least bad solution," since it will have a minimum cost of 12 billion euros. But the extension suspends new investments and planned projects until new budgets are adopted, such as subsidies for housing renovations and for winegrowers, the hiring of teachers and judicial sector workers, or tenders, many of which were to finance projects related to the commitments of the 2030 Agenda. The minister that France has in three years faces the challenge of securing a new budget for 2026 with a very weak parliamentary base. which rests on specific supports from the traditional right and the socialists in exchange for concessionsThe opposition already forced him to to reverse the pension reform in October —the flagship measure of Macron's mandate— and France Unsubmissive has already warned that it will propose a motion of no confidence like the one that brought down his predecessor, Michel Barnier, if Lecornu decides to approve the budget unilaterally, through the controversial Article 49.3. A budget that will be even more difficult to negotiate given that France has committed to increasing defense spending and reducing the deficit to 5% of GDP.