"The French National Assembly has passed an emergency budget bill providing an extension that rolls over 2025 spending limits into the new year, avoiding government shutdown, after the house had earlier been unable to agree a full state budget for 2026. The law was adopted unanimously in the lower house and in the Senate, allowing the authorities to continue collecting taxes and issuing debt. Lawmakers will reconvene in January in an attempt to agree a full state budget for 2026. Lawmakers voted on the measure during a session that saw broad participation, with 496 out of 558 members casting their ballots, as footage shows. President of the National Assembly Yael Braun-Pivet announced the outcome. “The National Assembly has adopted the special bill,” she concluded, before wishing lawmakers 'happy holidays'. This comes after lawmakers from both houses on Friday failed to agree on a budget, forcing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to seek the 'special' law for the provisional extension of the 2025 budget into January 2026. The 2026 budget bill will be debated by members of parliament starting January 5, 2026. Rising inflation and energy costs have challenged French households and businesses over the past year, with Lercornu having been unable to build a consensus on a budget, with disagreements between political blocs over defence spending, agricultural policy, austerity measures, as well as public spending and debt."