Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne ended the debates on the first part of the 2023 budget in the Assembly by drawing the weapon of 49.3, for the first time in Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term, but probably not the last.
“I engage the responsibility of my government for the first part of the finance bill for 2023”declared the head of government in the hemicycle, to the applause of the macronists and the noisy disapproval of the opposition.
The Nupes deputies, some of whom laughed when Ms. Borne said she had “choose dialogue”, immediately left the session. Immediately afterwards, LFI deputy Mathilde Panot announced the filing “on the spot” of a motion of censure. The RN was to follow suit with its own motion. “The RN is tabling a motion of censure against this government which despises democratic debate and seems to have great difficulty accepting its minority status in this Assembly representative of the French people!”wrote Jordan Bardella on Twitter.
After more than a week, or 55 hours of sometimes stormy exchanges and series of defeats for the macronists on votes on budget amendments, there was hardly any doubt about the use of this constitutional tool.
Article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution allows the executive, deprived of an absolute majority in the Assembly, to pass a text without a vote, unless a motion of censure is adopted.
Its activation on Wednesday is “an anti-democratic coup coupled with contempt”, according to the deputy Insoumis Eric Coquerel, a “denial of democracy” according to the deputy and national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel.
But Ms. Borne defended herself from any forced passage, citing the need to hold “the expected deadlines” and especially emphasizing that “the oppositions have all reaffirmed their desire to reject the text”.
“The debate was held and we examined, loyally, all the proposals, all the ideas”she argued.
The left believes that the presidential camp could have agreed to extend these debates, when there were still more than 2,000 amendments to be examined, and that certain sensitive subjects, such as the taxation of “superprofits” have not yet been discussed.
The oppositions also criticize the government for a “contempt” of parliamentarians, since it will not retain in the text submitted to 49.3 a certain number of amendments yet voted by the deputies, as authorized by 49.3.
“The text that I am presenting today is not the copy of the project that was initially submitted to you”retorted Ms. Borne in the hemicycle, defending a finance bill nourished, supplemented, amended, even corrected “to take into account the debates.
A hundred amendments retained
After arbitrations made until the last moment on Wednesday, the executive has indeed added to its initial budget a hundred amendments, emanating from the majority for the most part and from the opposition for some, indicated a government source.
These include strengthening the tax credit for childcare, reducing taxes for smaller businesses, establishing a “safety net” against inflation for local authorities or removing a tax advantage enjoyed by private jets.
For a total additional cost of some 700 million euros.
But there is no question of including the MoDem amendment on the taxation of superdividends, yet adopted with the support of the left, the RN and even around twenty Renaissance deputies. A “political misconduct”judged on LCI the number one of the CFDT Laurent Berger.
It is also no to a PS proposal, adopted in session, for the establishment of a tax credit for the remainder payable by all residents in nursing homes, deemed too expensive.
Under strong pressure to tax the windfall profits made by some large companies “crisis profiteers”the government also included in its text the fruit of an agreement concluded between EU countries at the end of September.
It translates into a “a temporary solidarity contribution” on the part of gas, coal and oil producers and distributors based on their results in 2022. And by a cap on the income of electricity producers, which have taken off solely because of the link between the price of electricity and the price gas and coal.
Measures that the left and the RN have already deemed largely insufficient.
The motions of censure have almost no chance of bringing down the government, the elected RNs having excluded “first” to vote for a Nupes text, and vice versa. While the LR deputies also refuse to vote for censorship at this stage.
The motion of the left, already ready and which will be presented by the president of the ecologist deputies Cyrielle Chatelain, will be “very open” to rally as much as possible, assured Danièle Obono (LFI).
The Council of Ministers already authorized Wednesday the use of 49.3 on the draft budget of Social Security, the examination of which in the Assembly must begin Thursday.
Given this probable use and the fact that this tool will be usable at several stages of the examination of the two budgets, ten 49.3s could be triggered before the Assembly by mid-December.