This Monday, October 21, the deputies began to examine the “income” part of the State budget for 2025, which provides for 60 billion in savings, with the horizon of approval without a vote via article 49.3 of the Constitution, due to lack of majority. for the government in the Assembly.
The beginning of these budget discussions begins in earnest the most important weeks of the young government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier, supported by a fragile majority of Les Républicains-macronie and always under the threat of censure from the National Rally.
Just 48 hours after its rejection in the Finance Commission, the text returned in its initial version to a public session, as is usual in budget texts. A blessing in disguise for the government, which saw its copy largely rewritten in committee.
In his introduction, the Minister of Economy, Antoine Armand, advocated a budget that reduces the public deficit to 5% of GDP in 2025, rejecting any “austerity” and foresees an increase in public spending in volume of “0.4%” .
Antoine Armand stated that two thirds of the effort would come from a reduction in spending. “We do not propose to tax more and more French people who work or those who pass on the fruits of their labor to their children,” he promised, while the Finance Commission voted last week in favor of numerous new taxes when it itself examined the project. budget for 2025. .
“If the path they propose to us is that of fiscal manipulation, do not count on the support of the Government,” added Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin, defending the measures proposed by the Government, some of which are under debate. to the coalition.
“The effort in which everyone must contribute their part cannot be transformed into a fiscal ‘Lépine competition’,” Michel Barnier defended this weekend, defending the “balance” of the 60 billion savings theoretically distributed by his text between 20 billion in new income and 40 billion in spending reductions.
49.3, a “protection”?
The first exchanges of arms occurred in the chamber on Monday afternoon, during a debate on the Government’s medium-term budget plan.
Antoine Armand announced the launch of a review of public spending that should allow it to be reduced by “at least 5 billion euros” between now and 2027.
The government’s plan, which covers the period 2025-2029, aims to reduce France’s public deficit to 2.8% of GDP in 2029, below the maximum threshold of 3% provided for by European budget rules.
Debates are currently scheduled through Saturday, with a formal vote on Tuesday. But the general budget rapporteur, the centrist Charles de Courson, was not very optimistic about the possibility of reaching the vote, with nearly 3,700 amendments presented. “Let us be careful, dear colleagues, not to destroy our right to modify by resorting excessively to the presentation of amendments,” he advocated.
A government source imagined on Sunday that the debates would last at least until Wednesday – “we will see it more clearly” – before a possible resort to 49.3 to stop the bleeding. “We are committed to letting the debate develop,” stressed the Prime Minister, hinting at resorting to this constitutional weapon “in case of parliamentary blockade.”
In an interview given on Monday to the Sud-Ouest newspaper, the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Nathalie Delattre, estimated that “if we reach a text that the common base cannot vote on, a 49.3 would be a protection.”
Nathalie Delattre received the coalition deputies on Monday at 8:00 p.m. Barnier passed without saying a word, according to his surroundings.
Social security, another battle
The Insoumis, who had planned to defend a rejection motion at the beginning of the debates, finally renounced it to speed up the examination of the bill. The idea of the left is to achieve a text “compatible with the PFN.” “It’s playable,” Eric Coquerel said Sunday.
For its part, the RN group also wants to achieve victories, such as the elimination of the increase in taxes on electricity, while the Government plans to raise them “beyond” 32 euros per megawatt hour. A perspective that is also opposed by LR deputies and the Ensemble pour la République group (ex-Renaissance), which will propose returning to the 32 euro mark.
The government will also have to manage other wishes from its camp, between the deputies of the right wing of the Renaissance who want to eliminate the surcharge on large companies and those of the MoDem who want to perpetuate it on high incomes.
The equation will not be easier for the Social Security budget, whose examination began on Monday in committee, with even more irritating savings measures in the Macronist camp, with the possibility of an increase in certain company contributions to postpone the indexation of the pensions. to inflation.
Source: BFM TV
