2023-12-21 20:18:19
The state budget for 2024 was definitively adopted on Thursday, December 21 in the Assembly after the rejection of a motion of censure from the left, signing the end of a financial year still marked by a series of 49.3 which is tiring the opposition as well as the presidential camp. In the shadow of the heated debates on the “immigration” law, it was in a very sparse hemicycle that the deputies met for the last time of the year.
By calling for censorship, the “rebellious” Eric Coquerel, president of the finance committee, contested the budget as much as the law on “immigration”, which he considers “ignominious” et “nauseating”. Only 116 MPs contributed their votes to the left-wing motion, far from the 289 needed to bring down the government. Its rejection leads to the adoption of the 2024 finance bill (PLF).
From the podium of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, defended the creation of more than 2,000 police and gendarmerie positions, an increase in justice and defense resources, upgrades for teachers and a « budget vert » with an additional seven billion euros in favor of the ecological transition. The government is on a crest between its spending and the desire to reduce the public deficit to 4.4% of GDP in 2024. Bercy has promised to seek twelve billion additional savings per year from 2025, a assignment « difficile »recognize some of the Macronist deputies.
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Twelve billion additional savings per year
Like last year, the government which does not have an absolute majority in the Assembly has resorted ten times to the constitutional weapon of 49.3 to pass this State budget and that of Social Security adopted without a vote. on December 4. 49.3, motion of censure, 49.3…: the now well-regulated ballet has created wear and tear in the hemicycle, more than last year when the deputies discovered the new configuration of the National Assembly in a relative majority. Throughout this budgetary fall, the opposition has continued to denounce the “contempt of Parliament” and one “denial of democracy”.
On the content of the PLF, left-wing groups criticized the government for not doing enough on ecology and housing and for refusing to increase taxes on the richest or large companies. In the presidential coalition, the MoDem demanded in vain measures of « justice fiscale »such as a tax on share buybacks of large companies, after the one he wanted on « superdividendes » last year, but which the government had ruled out. For its part, the Les Républicains (LR) group notably demanded a cut of six billion euros in the amount of unemployment compensation.
“The 2025 budget will be even more demanding”
Faced with the high cost of living, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, stressed on Thursday that “the inflationary crisis is behind us”even if “it remains very hard for many of our compatriots”. In the home stretch, debates focused on housing shortages, a « social bombs »according to a number of elected officials.
Between two 49.3, the government allowed a Senate measure to pass to reduce more drastically than expected the tax loophole enjoyed by furnished tourist rentals like Airbnb. A “hardware error”we explain to the government, which assures that the measure will not apply in 2024, despite the voices on the left and in the majority who demand it.
Another controversy, the government supported, against the advice of the opposition, advantageous tax measures for international sports federations, the main goal of which is to try to attract the powerful FIFA, the major body of world football, to France. A « mini paradis fiscal »denounced Lisette Pollet (RN).
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The executive has also taken over a tax voted in the Senate on the platforms of « streaming » musical, in order to finance the National Music Center (CNM). Something to bristle at Spotify France which announced in retaliation that it would stop supporting the Francofolies de La Rochelle and the Printemps de Bourges, from 2024. To improve the construction of the budget, the government intends to bring forward budgetary discussions next year, including with the oppositions. “The 2025 budget will be even more demanding. We have to build it very early”explained the Minister of Public Accounts, Thomas Cazenave.
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