“At this rate, we will end mid-December with particularly disgusting cynicism.” The brief sentence is signed by the budget manager of the National Group, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, in the plenary session on Saturday. The reason for his anger: the slowness of debates on the 2026 budget, which would be linked in particular to the government.
Started since Friday, the debates in the session that refer to the income part are declining. The elected representatives of the Bourbon Palace have so far only studied five articles of a text that contains 81. And yet, time is running out. Parliamentarians must vote on the entire first part of the text before Tuesday before addressing the second part of the budget to meet the deadlines established by the Constitution.
One amendment per minute
Is this really possible when there are more than 2,994 amendments to consider? The question arises even more as time goes by. There will be no session on Tuesday morning, debates will begin in the late afternoon due to current issues in the government, the same topic the next day…
And on Thursday, the deputies will be on another file: the parliamentary niche of the RN that lends a hand to Marine Le Pen’s deputies on the debate agenda. On the menu: a proposed resolution to put an end to the 1968 agreements between France and Algeria, the reinstatement of the crime of illegal stay or free parking for hospitals… In short, everything except the budget.
Specifically, there are only 42 hours left for deputies to complete the first part of the state budget. Therefore, to meet the deadlines, we would need to be able to study about 60 amendments per hour, that is, one per minute. The mission is almost impossible.
full deputies
What is the reason for such slowness when last year the debates largely met the deadlines, even allowing the left to add victories with the timely approval of the first part of the budget? In particular due to the important mobilization of the deputies.
Last year, the elected LR and Renaissance barely wet their shirts to defend the then Prime Minister Michel Barnier. And rightly so: all the deputies had understood that the Government would finally regain control of all the debates by withdrawing 49.3, the article of the Constitution that allows the adoption of a text without a vote.
The maneuver allows the government to include in the budget only the provisions that suit it. In other words, apart from the left that was interested in achieving symbolic victories, the common base barely had the courage to come to session in the fall of 2024.
This year the atmosphere is completely different, first of all because the Prime Minister has promised not to use 49.3. Without ever formally promising not to use other tools such as the blocked vote, which can twist the arms of the deputies, Matignon’s tenant seems to want to leave total freedom to the Assembly.
“The government will propose, we will debate, you will vote,” Sébastien Lecornu stated several times during his general policy speech.
“We can’t do a good job.”
Result: the seats in the chamber are especially full and all amendments are defended, which was not always the case last year. Specifically, this Monday afternoon, the deputies spent several hours in session debating the exceptional contribution to very large companies that exceed one billion euros in turnover.
And in a particularly unstable political context, all seats are determined to obtain victories. The president of the LR deputies, Laurent Wauquiez, can now, for example, boast to his constituents of having obtained the tax exemption for tips in the restoration and unfreezing of the income tax scale that prevents 200,000 households from being subject to the tax.
“It is difficult to complain that the deputies are mobilized. But we see that the deadlines force us to take the turbo when many of us want to put our foot on the budget. We cannot do a good job,” laments a Macronist deputy.
Suspension of the session and “fluid discussions” between the PS and Bercy
As for the government, which always tries to seduce the socialists, it does not hesitate to suspend sessions which, in the long run, slow down the debates. This Monday afternoon, during the break in debates, he presented an amendment to increase the exceptional contribution on the profits of large companies from 20.6% to 35.3%.
The version initially devised by Bercy raised the ire of the PS, before the government finally changed course. Enough to further facilitate relations with the pink party that has the future of Sébastien Lecornu in its hands, arousing the anger of La France insoumise who denounced through the voice of his boss Manuel Bompard “rotten compromises” regarding X.
From Olivier Faure’s side we reject any slowdown in debates due to exchanges with the government. The first secretary spoke this Sunday at LCI of “normal” contacts and a “fluid discussion” with the prime minister around a shared desire “to achieve at some point that France has a budget before the end of the year.”
Maximum presence except weekends
Meanwhile, among the hypotheses is trying to meet deadlines and at the same time achieve quality debates; We find in particular the organization of sessions next weekend. In fact, the deputies already met last Saturday. Why not do it a second time? Officially, all deputies are ready.
“In all the fields, the same instructions were given to be there as long as possible, regardless of the day or time,” observes a Parliament truck driver.
Maybe so, but weekend sessions are usually less busy than weekday sessions, even more so if they are organized at the last minute. Saturday is usually a day when parliamentarians tour their constituencies and, more than ever, when the specter of dissolution is never far away.
traffic jam
What would happen if debates on the first part of the budget were stopped on the November 4 deadline, without deputies having finished the 81 articles and thousands of amendments? In this case, deputies would examine the second part of the state budget for 2026 with the expenditure part. They would then have until November 23 to vote on the entire text.
The mission would be very dangerous. And rightly so: during this time, deputies must also look at the social security budget in the chamber. Is it possible to examine the equivalent of three texts in this way? Nothing is less certain.
“If we can’t complete the expenditure side, I don’t see why we could do more on the income side,” laments a PS deputy. In this hypothesis, it would be the Senate that would then have control of the budget and would have to largely dismantle everything that the deputies have done. Almost an admission of failure then.
Source: BFM TV
