Social security budget: Borne triggers 49.3 on the revenue side, LFI and the RN announce two motions of censure

2023-10-25 19:08:28

This is the 14th use of this article by Élisabeth Borne since taking office at Matignon, and the third since the resumption of parliamentary work in September. The Prime Minister committed the government to responsibility through 49.3 on the revenue side of the Social Security budget, this Wednesday at the National Assembly.

“Despite our overtures, once again, the practice according to which opposition groups refuse to vote on a budget, whatever it may be, has prevailed,” Borne declared in a short statement from the podium of the ‘National Assembly. Article 49.3 of the Constitution allows the adoption of a text without a vote, unless a motion of censure is adopted against the government. In response, LFI announces a motion of censure, with communist and environmentalist signatures. The RN also announced a motion of censure.

Expected usage

This forceful passage was expected in the hemicycle, since rejected by the oppositions like the State budget, the first part of which was adopted last Wednesday by a 49.3. For the Social Security budget, it is the underfinancing of health as well as the specter of an increase in medical deductibles that are denounced.

In this budget, the executive is aiming for a saving of 3.5 billion euros on spending in the health sector in 2024, via reductions in spending on medicines, analysis labs and even sick leave, as well as a reinforced fight against fraud. The left, for several weeks, has been criticizing a budget which “does not resolve the hospital crisis” and neglects the financing of dependency.

It is a text “without odor or taste because it is so locked down by budgetary constraints”, denounced PS deputy Jérôme Guedj. It “is not sincere”, even attacked the environmentalist deputy Sébastien Peytavie, targeting a target for the evolution of health insurance expenditure (+ 3.2%) that was too low and “unrealistic” forecasts. On the right, LR deputy Yannick Neuder believed that “the account is not there”. “All the players, public and private, make the same observation” for the hospital sector, he underlined, while RN deputy Joëlle Melin denounces “planning attacks”.

A sensitive measure envisaged by the executive mobilizes all opposition, even if it does not formally appear in this PLFSS: the doubling of the remainder payable by policyholders for medicines (currently 50 cents per box) and consultations (1 euro). The impact of this increase in medical deductibles is included in the financial projections and excluding it would involve generating savings otherwise, argues a majority executive. The government will be able to decide by regulatory means, but the deputies want to be able to debate it.

Another explosive measure, although absent from the text, hovers over the debates: the contribution of Agirc-Arrco, the supplementary private pension fund, to participate in the “balance” of the retirement system. The social partners, who manage this scheme, have rejected the executive’s request to recover at least one billion euros from its surpluses.