2023-10-17 04:15:07
Thomas Cazenave, the minister responsible for public accounts, at the Elysée, August 23, 2023. JULIEN MUGUET FOR “LE MONDE”
When entering the Hemicycle, Tuesday October 17, to begin the first reading examination of the 2024 finance bill (PLF), a question will cross all parliamentary groups: how much time will they have to discuss the budgetary orientations of the executive? While the government presents for the second consecutive year a budget without an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the announced use of 49.3 extinguishes the prospect of any compromise.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, warned at the start of the school year that she would use this constitutional provision to have the PLF adopted without a vote, in the face of the expected refusal of the oppositions to vote on the text. Especially since the threat of the rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch, which must pronounce respectively on October 20 and 27 on the French debt, weighs on the executive.
While around fifteen 49.3 are expected in the coming weeks between the finance bill, that on Social Security and the settlement law, the deputies tried to put forward their proposals last week in the finance committee, where nearly 3,000 amendments had been tabled. For the examination in public session, more than 5,100 amendments were tabled – a record – on the first part of the PLF (revenue). A way for oppositions to increase opportunities to beat the government in the Chamber.
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Series of setbacks
The four days of debate in committee have already inflicted a series of setbacks on the government and the Renaissance deputies, with the adoption of some 170 amendments, including around forty against the advice of the government. Defeats that are all the more alarming for the presidential camp as they have been on several occasions based on amendments from their MoDem allies, supported by the oppositions and even by Horizons elected officials. The 2022 debate on the taxation of superdividends was thus reopened by the adoption of an amendment from the “rebellious” president of the Finance Committee, Eric Coquerel, taking up a proposal from the MoDem.
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In this context, the presidential party relies on the forty hours of debates in the Finance Committee to minimize criticism of a 49.3 quickly initiated in the Hemicycle. “The debate took place, it was interesting. (…) I’m not sure it should last forever.”, decided Jean-René Cazeneuve, the general rapporteur (Renaissance) of the budget, Monday October 16 in front of the press, although the discussions returned to the initial text. Mr. Cazeneuve denounced the positions “sometimes caricatures” oppositions, especially when they joined forces to vote on costly amendments. “There was a demagogy contest between the extreme left and the extreme right”said Renaissance MP Mathieu Lefèvre.
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