The Assembly of People’s Representatives (ARP) and the National Council of Regions and Districts (CNRD) opened, Friday in Tunis, a joint plenary session devoted to the examination of the 2026 finance bill (PLF).
Presidents Brahim Bouderbala and Imed Derbali led the work in the presence of the Minister of Finance, Mechket Slama Khaldi. This first phase is dedicated to the presentation of committee reports and the general debate before the successive votes of the two chambers.
Presentation of reports and opening of the general debate
From the opening, the finance committees of the ARP and the CNRD presented their respective reports on the PLF 2026. These documents detail the conclusions of the joint meetings held in recent weeks, during which members examined the articles of the project in the presence of executives from the Ministry of Finance and representatives of various departments and national organizations.
The preliminary discussions made it possible to review the main orientations of the PLF, as well as the comments collected from the institutional actors consulted. The session then switched to a general debate, giving the floor to elected officials from both chambers to question the Minister of Finance and present their positions before the voting stage.
Organization of the vote and role of the two chambers
The second part of the joint plenary will be devoted to the adoption of the provisions of the PLF 2026. In accordance with the legal framework in force – Constitution, organic law n°15 of 2019 and decree n°1 of 2024 – the members of the ARP will first vote on the budgets of the missions, special missions and articles, then to the adoption of the overall text of the project.
Once this first vote is completed, the session will resume with the members of the CNRD, who will in turn vote on the text already approved by the ARP, using the same pattern: validation of budgets, articles, then adoption of the law as a whole.
Since the entry into force of the new legislative system governing relations between the ARP and the CNRD, the examination of the finance law constitutes one of the key institutional moments where the bicameral procedure is fully mobilized.
The PLF 2026 is thus the first major project to fully follow the examination and voting mechanism sequenced between the two chambers, as defined by the decree of September 13, 2024.
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