For more than a year, the failed effort to pass a state budget in France has helped foment the most chaotic period in the country’s recent history. Splits between lawmakers in France’s divided lower house of Parliament, where no party holds a majority, led to the downfall of three governments and two prime ministers.
After months of gridlocked negotiations, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Monday night finally overcame the last parliamentary obstacle to a budget, as his minority government survived last-gasp no-confidence votes from opposition lawmakers. That paved the way for the government to fund state services for another year, subject to a routine judicial review by France’s highest constitutional authority.
Now, the budget’s passage, coupled with the survival of Mr. Lecornu’s fragile government, is expected to allow for a semblance of political stability after months of turmoil.
The adoption of the budget also creates breathing room for President Emmanuel Macron, who appointed Mr. Lecornu last fall, as it removes a domestic distraction from his efforts to regain prestige and influence on the world stage.
“I believe it is now time to move on and for France to finally have a budget,” Mr. Lecornu told lawmakers in France’s lower house of Parliament on Monday.
His victory, though, was overshadowed by his methods. To pass the budget, Mr. Lecornu had to use Article 49.3 of the Constitution, a tool that some deem undemocratic because it allows the government to pass a bill without a vote. Mr. Lecornu initially pledged not to use it, but reversed course when he failed to find a compromise at the negotiating table with opposition lawmakers.
“He has been extremely shrewd,” said Benjamin Morel, a lecturer in public law at Panthéon-Assas University in Paris. “Many said this meant his method had failed, that he had contradicted himself. But the original objective was to pass a budget,” Mr. Morel added.
Mr. Lecornu’s decision was met with fierce opposition from political parties on the far-left and the far-right, who initiated no-confidence motions against the government. But the motions failed after the Socialist Party stood by the government in exchange for concessions in the budget.
That has led to a budget that calls for greater state spending than the more parsimonious one initially presented by the government, which hoped to do more to tackle the country’s looming debt and deficit. To please the Socialists, the government has instead agreed to measures including an increase in certain social benefits and a bonus for minimum-wage workers.
Mr. Lecornu said on Friday that with a secured budget he would “focus on the essential,” which he described as the process of readying France for an increasingly volatile world.
“This is true of military planning, our ability to reaffirm our sovereignty in defense matters, and it is true in terms of digital protection,” he said, adding that a bill to decentralize the French administrative system was in the works.
But Mr. Lecornu will still have to work with a deeply divided Parliament, where his centrist allies are outnumbered by those on the far-right and far-left.
“The goal there is to hold on,” Mr. Morel said, “to hold on while giving the impression that you’re still moving forward, even though the slightest breeze could still blow you away.”
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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