France’s Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu looks on during a session of questions to the government at the National Assembly in Paris on December 17, 2025.
Stéphane De Sakutin / AFP
The failure to agree on a budget prolongs uncertainty as Paris faces mounting pressure to curb debt and deficits.
A joint committee of French lawmakers on Friday, December 19th failed to reach a compromise on the state budget for next year, parliamentary sources said, meaning France would not have a 2026 budget by year end.
The 2025 budget is now likely to be carried over into the new year as debates continue in both chambers.
“Parliament will therefore be unable to vote on a budget for France before the end of the year,” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on X after senators and members of the lower house could not agree.
France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, is under pressure to rein in its deficit and soaring debt, but efforts have been hampered by political deadlock.
Lecornu was named in September—then renamed the following month after stepping down—after his two predecessors were both toppled by parliament over cost-cutting measures.
He had pledged to pass a budget by the end of the year, but not use a constitutional power to ram it through without a parliament vote, as done in previous years.
Lawmakers have been unable to pass the state budget, which has been complicated by a tug of war between the right-leaning Senate that wants to cut costs, and a hung lower house in which the left has demanded more tax income.
Lecornu said he would from Monday bring together “the main political leaders to consult them on the way forward.”
