French Budget Minister Amelie de Montchalin (C-L) and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu (C-R) attend a debate session on Social Security Finance Bill 2026 at the French National Assembly in Paris, France, 03 December 2025. The French parliament continued to debate on the social security financing bill for 2026. EPA/CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON 
Lecornu had warned on Thursday that France risked losing control of social security spending as lawmakers from centrist Horizons and Socialists balked at supporting the bill.
They are due to vote on taxes to finance welfare, health and pension spending during Friday's parliamentary session. If that vote passes, they will hold a final vote on the whole bill - a major part of France's overall public budget - on Tuesday.
To win Horizon's support, Lecornu offered to increase a tax used to finance social security less than planned and dropped plans to increase deductibles on state health insurance as a concession to Socialist lawmakers.
"We've never been closer to the goal," government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said on Friday on TF1 television after the deal was hammered out overnight in the lower house.
Lecornu had warned that a rejection would leave France with no social security budget heading into the new year, causing spending to spiral out of control.
His government aims to bring France's overall public sector budget deficit next year to 5% of GDP - the biggest in the euro zone - but has little room to manoeuvre in parliament in the absence of a majority.
President Emmanuel Macron lost his majority in last year's snap parliamentary election, triggering broad political instability. A battle over last year's budget triggered a no-confidence vote that brought down the cabinet of Michel Barnier, one of Lecornu's predecessors.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by Philippa Fletcher)