France urgently pushes through temporary budget bill to avoid government shutdown crisis.

According to reports, French lawmakers are speeding up the vote on an emergency bill to ensure the country can continue operating normally in January next year, before the official budget for 2026 receives parliamentary approval amid serious divisions. Last Friday, members of both houses of parliament had a serious disagreement over cutting spending and increasing taxes, failing to reach a compromise on the text of the 2026 budget. French Prime Minister Ccile Cornu submitted this emergency bill on Monday evening. The bill is expected to be formally passed on Tuesday and its core content allows the government to extend the spending limits of 2025 to the new year, while authorizing the government to continue taxing and issuing government bonds. French Finance Minister Lesquer warned that although this emergency bill can avoid a government shutdown crisis like in the United States, it is only a temporary measure. He urged lawmakers to finalize the official budget early next year. Lesquer said in an interview, "We will continue to pay public servants, public infrastructure services will be maintained, and schools will reopen after the holidays, but new investment plans will be put on hold." Currently, investors and major rating agencies are closely monitoring France's fiscal situation. This year, France's fiscal deficit reached 5.4% of GDP, the highest among eurozone members. The Cornu government is working hard to contain the scale of the deficit. However, the minority government led by Cornu has almost no room to maneuver in the divided parliament. Since President Macron lost the majority in the early parliamentary elections in 2024, three governments have fallen due to budget negotiations. It is worth mentioning that last year, France also used a similar temporary budget extension bill, which was not officially passed until February 2025. The French government previously revealed that this practice led to an economic loss of 12 billion euros (about $14 billion).