France: the budget impasse costs 100 M €/day to the State

For several decades, French budget management has been a source of recurring tensions, but the current situation has reached an unprecedented level. In 2025, the censorship of the budget voted by the Senate plunged the country into a major financial crisis, with losses estimated at 100 million euros per day. In the absence of a new text validated by the National Assembly, the 2024 budget remains in force, which deprives the state of essential revenue and savings measures. Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Public Accounts, alerts to the repercussions of this impasse, and underlines both its economic cost and the institutional challenges it reveals.

The financial losses of a budgetary paralysis

France is going through an unprecedented budget crisis, marked by an institutional blockage with heavy economic repercussions. According to Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Public Accounts, the absence of a validated budget for 2025 generates a daily loss of 100 million euros, which aggravates an already critical situation. “Since 1^er January, we have already lost 6 billion euros in revenue that do not enter the funds and savings that are not made, “she said on BFMTV, and points to the urgency to unlock the Parliamentary negotiations.

At the origin of this blockage, the censorship by the Senate of the budget proposed for 2025 after the use of article 49.3 by the government Michel Barnier. This decision led to the automatic application of the 2024 budget, inadequate in the face of current economic challenges. The differences between political parties on budgetary priorities prevent any progress, which leaves public finances without clear direction. In addition, this budgetary vacuum compromises the implementation of essential projects for reducing the deficit, and strengthens economic uncertainties and the concerns of taxpayers on a possible increase in taxes.

A compromise budget: Mission Impossible?

The current budgetary crisis goes beyond colossal financial losses. It sheds light on the deep fractures that cross the French political landscape. Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Public Accounts, has recalled The urgency of exceeding partisan divisions to adopt a “country budget”. According to her, “it will not be the budget of the right, the left or the center, but that of the nation”. This message is intended to be a call to unity, while tensions between the various political blocks paralyze the decisions necessary to avoid an increase in taxes, deemed inevitable in the event of failure of negotiations.

However, this budgetary impasse also reveals the structural limits of the French institutional system. A joint joint committee must meet soon to try to unlock the situation, but the lasting differences between parliamentarians are likely to extend the dead end. For the moment, the social and economic consequences are increasing. Investors' confidence could crumble, while growing uncertainty penalizes the management of public finances, already put to the test.

This situation highlights the urgency of an in -depth reform of decision -making processes in France. The recurring use of mechanisms such as article 49.3 testifies to the increased difficulties in finding a political consensus in a context of exacerbated polarization. If the blocking persists, households will likely have to bear an increased tax burden, while France's economic reputation could be compromised on the international scene. These issues ask a fundamental question: is the current system still adapted to the management of contemporary economic and political challenges?

For the moment, all eyes are turning to the National Assembly, where the next deliberations will be decisive for the country's financial future. However, this crisis goes far beyond the budgetary framework and triggers questions about the need for institutional reforms capable of preventing such blockages in the future. The challenge is twofold: it is not a question of restoring an economic balance, but also of rethinking political and structural mechanisms to guarantee the stability and resilience of institutions in the face of future challenges.