After the failed examination of the State budget, the deputies begin on Monday afternoon in the chamber the review of the Social Security budget with the same risks of insufficiency or even rejection, while the Government does not seem to be in a hurry to use the weapon from 49-3.
Budget tragedy, act 2. Deputies left on Saturday night without having completed the revenue part of the finance bill: 1,500 amendments remain to be discussed, this debate will resume on November 5. Meanwhile, elected officials meet at the Palacio Borbón starting at 4:00 p.m. to try to improve the Social Security financing bill.
Hot points of the debate
Also in this case the first challenge will be to meet the deadlines. Less than thirty hours of public session are planned for the general debate and then the examination of the approximately 2,200 amendments presented. Compare the thirty-five hours that the Social Affairs Committee spent examining 1,600 amendments last week and finally rejected the text unanimously.
The only advantage of the exercise is that the hot points of the debate are already marked. Firstly, the exemptions from business contributions, which the Government wants to review to recover 4,000 million euros in the process. If the left voted in favor, the Macronists, the right and the extreme right joined forces against this measure denounced by the employers. Disavowed by his own side, the executive declares himself willing to act at this point.
Bercy did well in this area, launching a potentially explosive letter at night: go from one to three days of waiting and pay less for sick leave for civil servants, to recover just over a billion euros.
“The ease of 49.3”
The other expected battle has to do with pensions. In two ways. On the one hand, the much-discussed freezing of pensions, whose revaluation would be postponed from January 1 to July 1. A coup that also cost 4 billion, was eliminated almost unanimously in the commission and promised the same fate in the chamber.
In fact, all deputies from the left, right, macronists and independents of Liot have signed amendments to delete this article. And the National Rally turns it into “a red line,” its vice president Sébastien Chenu stressed on Sunday. Which leaves little hope for those who propose a freeze limited to pensions greater than 1,200, 1,600 or 2,000 euros per month.
In statements to Le Parisien, the Minister of Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, estimated that it is “up to the parliamentary debate to set the threshold, for example 1,200 euros, which covers more than 30% of retirees, below which retirees they could have compensation for this difference.” .
On the other hand, the left will once again put the repeal of the pension reform on the table through several amendments, although the return to 62 years has a good chance of colliding with the ax of financial admissibility.
All options remain open
Therefore, the text runs the risk of being profoundly reworked, or even distorted during the debates, especially if the government side is conspicuous by its absence, as last week. An “unacceptable” behavior denounced by the head of the modem, François Bayrou, who considered that “the duty of a parliamentarian is to occupy these seats in the Assembly.”
Even if that means suffering a series of setbacks, as the executive intends to let the debate develop. “We are not going to give in to the ease of 49.3,” said government spokesperson Maud Bregeon in Le Parisien Dimanche.
Therefore, all options remain open, including referring the initial bill to the Senate if deputies reject the text or fail to reach the vote scheduled for November 5. At the same time, the Assembly will begin examining the “spending” portion of the state budget in the Finance Committee, with some options starting this week such as Education, Ecology or Justice.
Source: BFM TV
