The Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday authorized the government to activate article 49.3 of the Constitution for the adoption of the budget “if the situation should require that we have recourse to it”, indicated the spokesman of the government, Olivier Véran. .
Article 49.3 of the Constitution allows the government, after deliberation by the Council of Ministers, to have a text adopted without a vote in the Assembly, except for a motion of censure. This procedure is possible for budgetary texts and for one other text per parliamentary session.
“The Council of Ministers deliberated this morning on this possibility if the situation, I insist on this, should require that we have recourse to it”, declared Olivier Véran during the report of the Council of Ministers.
“That does not mean that we want to use it, and that does not mean that we will use it, but it does mean that we are anticipating the situation which would push us to use it to avoid depriving France of ‘a budget,’ said the government spokesman.
“Yes to dialogue”
“It is very to be feared that oppositions will be tempted to lead France to blockage. In any case, this is what emerges from certain interventions by opposition group presidents who, moreover, announced early on that they would vote against France’s budget in any case, ”said Mr. Véran. .
“In this context, we obviously want to avoid any risk of blockage for our country because the consequences, if we do not adopt a budget, would be dramatic for all French people”, he continued.
“Yes to dialogue, and there will be: the examination of the text has begun in Parliament, it will continue and we will seek, article after article, amendment after amendment, solutions to obtain a consensus”, underlined the government spokesperson.
Deprived of an absolute majority, the government had a foretaste of the heated debate on the budget on Tuesday evening which awaits it from this Wednesday, the opposition having unraveled the 2023-2027 budget programming bill with the rejection of several key articles.