Over the past five years Europe’s once-profligate south has sorted out its public finances. Italy, Greece and Spain have brought down their budget deficits to levels commensurate with EU rules. The exception is France, which for three years has run a huge deficit of over 5% of GDP. You might think that being economically upstaged by countries that it helped rescue during the euro-zone crisis would focus political minds. Instead France has failed even to pass a budget for 2026. It now faces the latest in a series of parliamentary battles to adopt one by the end of the month.