After the censure avoided by Sébastien Lecornu this week, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon assured on Saturday, October 18, that “there is no trick or hidden plan” behind the option of resorting to a modification of the Social Security budget to suspend the pension reform.
This suspension, requested by the PS, which generally did not vote in favor of the motions of censure examined on Thursday, is an important issue to allow the government to maintain itself.
But in the opposition, the legislative vehicle announced by Sébastien Lecornu – which implies the approval of the entire social security financing bill in 50 days – raises fears that the executive will try to force him to approve his budget.
“That is the rhetoric of Rebellious France and the National Rally. And it is false! There is no trick or hidden plan. The commitments made will be fulfilled. The draft budget presented to Parliament is a starting point that each parliamentarian can modify,” responds Maud Bregeon in the columns of Le Parisien.
“Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has made three commitments and will fulfill them: not to resort to 49.3, work for greater tax justice and propose to Parliament the suspension of the pension reform. He has already done part of the way, then everyone will have to do their own thing,” he considers.
“The need for stability has become greater than the cost of compromise”
“Of course it is difficult for me,” confesses Maud Bregeon about this suspension of the pension reform. “A compromise, by definition, costs everyone. We don’t do it for pleasure, but out of necessity. Everyone knows my convictions about pension reform, I think it is necessary.”
According to her, “the need for stability” “was however greater than the cost of compromise”, after a sequence in which the Prime Minister resigned before being re-elected a few days later.
“It will not be the budget of the socialists or that of Sébastien Lecornu, it will be that of Parliament. We are not asking the PS to become Macronist or the LR to become socialist. Making concessions is not denying oneself. Making the luckiest Frenchmen contribute more, as the socialists ask, is not incompatible with support for employment, to which the common base is linked,” continues the spokesman for the Parliament. media.
And he added: “The deficit must be 4.7% of GDP in 2026, while preserving growth. The draft budget presented to Parliament is a starting point that each parliamentarian can modify. (…) Faced with each ‘more’, a ‘less’ will be necessary to guarantee this balance.”
For example, the minister considers that “‘free everything for all’ in terms of health is neither desirable nor sustainable.” He also confirms that he wants the elimination of housing assistance (APL) for non-EU and non-scholarship students. But the idea of taxing superinheritances is not on the executive’s agenda.
If discussions with parliamentarians over the budget stall, the government could, after 50 days, approve the bill by ordinance. A hypothesis that, in its operation, would go against Sébastien Lecornu’s renunciation of using 49.3.
“Why would they want us to use ordinances? They have never been used since 1958. We reject this hasty rush that consists of integrating, even before the debate begins, the failure of parliamentary discussion,” says Maud Bregeon. “We will go to the vote,” he concludes.
Source: BFM TV
