By Elizabeth Pineau and Leigh Thomas
PARIS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - French lawmakers narrowly approved the 2026 social security budget on Tuesday, handing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu a crucial victory but at enormous political and financial cost that could still threaten his fragile government.
Lecornu is seeking to get the broader state budget through parliament before year-end, but his costly concessions to win Socialist support on the social security financing bill have alienated allies and left him politically weakened.
Adopting a budget "will be difficult, perhaps even more so than in recent weeks," Lecornu said in a statement on social media after the vote.
Lawmakers approved the social security bill by a margin of just 13 votes, highlighting the government's precarious position in a divided lower house where no party holds a majority.
Lecornu's gamble to win Socialist lawmakers' support succeeded - but only by making concessions that have infuriated centrist and conservative allies over their cost.
"This is a budget that will undoubtedly allow the government and (President) Emmanuel Macron to last a little longer, but it will lead France into a brick wall," said Bruno Retailleau, head of the conservative Republicains.
Socialists backed the bill after Lecornu agreed to freeze Macron's landmark 2023 pension reform until after the 2027 presidential election.
The approval secures funding for healthcare, pensions and welfare, although it leaves a fiscal shortfall likely close to 20 billion euros. Social security accounts for over 40% of France's overall public sector spending.
But any relief the victory gives Lecornu may prove short-lived as lawmakers prepare to vote later this month on the overall state budget, currently under review in the Senate.
The government aims to cut France's budget deficit - already one of the euro zone's largest - to less than 5% of GDP next year. But it has little room to manoeuvre in a fractious parliament in the absence of a majority.
Budget battles have already toppled three governments since Macron lost his parliamentary majority in a snap election last year - including Michel Barnier's cabinet, which fell to a no-confidence vote over last year's budget.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Elizabeth Pineau, additional reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by William Maclean, Mark Potter, Gareth Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
