"Leaders of France's opposition parties gathered at the Hotel de Matignon to lay the groundwork for consensus on the 2026 budget bill, amid Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's push to pass an emergency budget rollover law to prevent a complete financial shutdown. This comes after lawmakers from both houses on Friday failed to agree on the bill, forcing Lecornu to seek a 'special law' for the provisional extension of the 2025 budget into January. Footage shows Olivier Faure, Boris Vallaud, and Xavier Iacovelli, among others, arriving at the prime minister’s office. Those summoned include the Socialist Party (PS) led by Olivier Faure, representatives of the Central Bloc (including the political parties Renaissance, MoDem, and Horizons), the Communist Party led by Fabien Roussel, the Greens, and the Republicans. The National Rally (RN) and La France Insoumise (LFI) were not summoned. “The budget voted by the Senate is a bad budget, especially because it does not even consider reducing the deficit," Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the SP, said. Calling the financial bill 'botched', he said they would revisit the document over the holidays to come up with a version that is 'fair'. "It's a military budget. It's a war budget that will be proposed to the French people, and that is not at all the choice we prefer," Fabien Roussel of the Communist Party said. Xavier Iacovelli, Vice President of the Senate, said there would have been no need for the 'special law' if the government had held a majority. "What is certain is that the special law is not a budget, and that it is just additional time to allow us to manage the debt from January 1st,” Iacovelli from the Renaissance Party said. He added that it was now parliament's responsibility to ensure an agreement on the budget. "The government uses a constitutional tool, which is the special law, to allow more time for the Parliament that hasn't managed to find a compromise within the 70 constitutional days," he added. The 'special law' was presented at a Council of Ministers meeting for approval on Monday evening. Debates to approve the special bill in the National Assembly and then the Senate are scheduled for Tuesday. The goal is to secure a provisional extension of the 2025 budget before Christmas. The 2026 budget bill will be debated by members of parliament starting January 5, 2026."