Two 49.3s in twenty-four hours. On the first day of the examination of the Social Security finance bill (PLFSS), Thursday, October 20, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, burst into the Chamber at 7:45 p.m. after dark. National Assembly to recommit the “responsibility for [son] government “. After a first time on the finance bill, on Wednesday, the head of government triggered this constitutional provision – which allows a text to be adopted without a vote – on the revenue side of the Social Security budget.
Faced with a sparse Assembly, Elisabeth Borne used the same turns of phrase as the day before to justify the hurried triggering of this 49.3. After greeting the “constructive discussions” who were able to meet in committee, allowing “to enrich the text with the adoption of amendments from the majority as well as from the opposition”the Prime Minister regretted from the Assembly gallery that the deputies had “distorted” part of the text in session.
And, like the day before, all the deputies of the New People’s, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) deserted the benches of the Hemicycle at the word ” responsibility ” in the mouth of the Prime Minister. From the Salle des Quatre-Colonnes and surrounded by many left-wing elected representatives, the leader of the “rebellious” deputies, Mathilde Panot, once again denounced a “passage in force on the National Assembly”. “We refuse this method which is a brutality to the democratic debate”, says the elected Val-de-Marne, before announcing the filing of a new motion of censure by the left. A motion which will be defended next week by the president of the socialist group, Boris Vallaud. The National Rally (RN) specified that it would not file any this time so as not to generate a “motion tunnel”.
“Always leave time for debate”
A few hours earlier, 49.3 was already on everyone’s mind, to the point of vampirizing the discussion on the substance of the text. As of Wednesday, the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, had announced, at the exit of the Council of Ministers, that the executive could interrupt the debates before their end, while nearly 3,200 amendments were tabled on the text.
Despite this threat, the Minister of Health, François Braun, showed himself, at the start of the discussions, to be much more willing. “The ball is now in your court (…). Let’s debate, progress, make a majority of ideas exist. For my part, I am ready for it”, he declared in front of the deputies. The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, had split a similar message, Thursday morning, calling for “always leave time for debate”. The executive will have decided otherwise. To protest against this haunting threat of 49.3, Nupes defended a motion of rejection prior to the text, finally rejected by 189 votes against 96.
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