A stopgap budget meant to stave off US-style shutdown in France is ready

PARIS — The outgoing French government has readied a stopgap budget to ensure the country is not paralyzed come January.

“It is ready,” budget minister Laurent Saint-Martin told broadcaster TF1 on Monday morning. Saint-Martin said the special law, which would allow the government to effectively carry over the 2024 budget into 2025, could be presented at the government’s next cabinet meeting.

Part of a 2025 budget was rejected last week as the left-wing New Popular Front alliance and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally joined forces to topple Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government.

French President Emmanuel Macron promised to quickly name a replacement, and could do so as early as Wednesday, according to a presidential adviser who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to be named.

Several names have circulated in French media in recent days, including centrist Macron ally François Bayrou, Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu and conservative Minister of Partnership with Territories and Decentralization Catherine Vautrin.

Macron on Monday is scheduled to meet with the heads of a few political parties, including the greens and communists.

The National Rally, which has not met with the president at the Elysée since the government fell, has already said it would support a stopgap measure, which will buy Macron and the new French government some time to sort out France’s finances.

However, senior officials have warned that rolling over last year’s budget would have its own problems. Barnier said it would mean higher taxes for 18 million households, and it would do nothing to cut a deficit projected to reach 6.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product this year, twice the European Union limit.

Barnier’s government, however, was unable to get lawmakers to sign off on their proposal to get that figure down to 5 percent for 2025 with €60 billion in combined tax hikes and spending cuts

Despite the political instability, financial markets have not panicked, as they’ve factored in political risk and consider the French economy as solid, despite the massive debt level.

Anthony Lattier contributed to this report.