By Louise Rasmussen
PARIS, Jan 16 (Reuters) - France’s government suspended talks in parliament on its 2026 budget until Tuesday after lawmakers failed to reach a compromise, giving the prime minister time to consider options for forcing through the legislation without a vote.
Bypassing parliament to get the budget passed would inevitably trigger a no confidence motion, which could lead to the collapse of government, unless it includes revisions to the bill that placate Socialist lawmakers.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s government blamed the ideologically opposed hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) and the far-right National Rally (RN) for sabotaging efforts to reach a compromise during three months of talks in parliament.
“The extremes have methodically voted for amendments to make the budget unvotable,” Budget Minister Amelie de Montchalin said on Friday in an interview on France 2 TV.
GOVERNMENT COULD FACE VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE
Lecornu will on Friday propose an amended draft of the budget bill to try to reach a compromise before talks resume on Tuesday, according to Montchalin.
“There are things we have proposed that clearly do not work,” she said. “We saw that there were issues concerning local authorities, which is a major concern. It’s a matter of everyday life.”
Lecornu will speak “towards the end of the day”, the prime minister’s office said.
A government source said that Lecornu was now looking at two options to pass the budget without a vote in parliament, despite the likelihood opposition lawmakers will respond with a vote of no confidence.
He could choose to invoke Article 49.3 of the Constitution that allows the government to push through a bill without a vote, but he had previously vowed not to do that, saying he wishes for the parliament to come to an agreement.
The alternative could be to invoke Article 47 - an executive order also allowing the government to pass the budget without a vote, though it is legally unclear whether the government could include some of the revisions made by lawmakers during the three months of talks.
If the government passes a bill that does not reflect at least some of the amendments backed by Socialists, their lawmakers could back a no confidence vote.
The Socialists’ pointman on the budget, Philippe Brun, threatened to back a no confidence vote “without hesitation” if the government tried to pass the budget by executive order.
(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen, Leigh Thomas and Elizabeth Pineau editing by Dominique Vidalon and Toby Chopra)
