“It’s the magic number of French parliamentary life: 49.3”, writes the Spanish daily The country. The magic trick performed this Wednesday, October 19 at the end of the afternoon by Élisabeth Borne should not have surprised the deputies. For several days already there had been the prospect of recourse to this article of the Constitution which allows a text of law to be passed without a vote in the National Assembly. The debate on the finance bill, which had been going on for fifty hours, has therefore come to an end.
The Prime Minister had to defend the use of this unpopular article based on the “responsibility” of the executive, reports The country. The centre-left daily adds: “Anyway, the opposition had already made the choice to obstruct.” The Guardian thus recalls that all the opposition groups, including Les Républicains (LR), had hammered home their refusal to vote on the budget this summer, “which allows the presidential party to affirm that it is constrained and forced that it resorts to this constitutional article of exceptional use”.
Beyond the announced blocking of opposition, the conservative Spanish daily The reason sees in this recourse to 49.3 “the first significant consequence of this unprecedented political reality that France is experiencing