There is still no Prime Minister and the Budget needs to be addressed urgently

Emmanuel Macron continues to welcome several Matignon hopefuls to the Elysée Palace: on Monday morning he received his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, then Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve.

The list of candidates for the post of Prime Minister is being finalised and it is about time, because there is only one week left if France wants to meet the budget deadlines. We can still meet the usual budget deadlines, “the deadlines would be very tight but they would pass,” a government source told BFM Business.

In fact, if the next Prime Minister is appointed this week, he or she would have to propose a first draft of the budget next week. A precise timetable before the examination in Parliament, which is provided for by law on the first Tuesday in October, that is, on 1 October.

Before this fateful date, the text must first be sent to the Higher Council of Public Finances on September 13 and then to the Council of State on September 19. Subsequently, a review of this provisional budget must be carried out in the Council of Ministers on September 25 before being finally presented to Parliament.

A legal calendar not imposed by the Constitution

This legal obligation to present a budget to the Assembly on the first Tuesday of October is enshrined in the organic law on finance laws. Would Emmanuel Macron then be required to appoint a prime minister this week? Not exactly…

There is a bit of subtlety here, and the President knows it. This obligation is not enshrined in the Constitution. The founding text only imposes a 70-day period for the National Assembly and the Senate to debate the budget before December 31.

According to our sources at Bercy, the next government will be able to negotiate with Parliament without too many difficulties to leave the country within this 70-day period and not on the date of 1 October.

The timetable could therefore be shifted two weeks later. This leaves Emmanuel Macron with the possibility of delaying the appointment of the prime minister for another two weeks, with a view to presenting a budget by 15 October at the latest.