This is a usually banal step in the validation of public accounts, but it took another turn in the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly. The deputies rejected, on Wednesday August 3, the 2021 budget settlement bill by 173 votes against 167, thanks to a coalition of oppositions.
The government was counting on a final endorsement from the deputies during this final reading, after the rejection of the text in the Senate, where the right pinned the situation “very degraded public accounts”with a deficit of 6.4% of GDP in 2021. The rejection by the National Assembly obliges the government to resubmit a settlement bill to the Council of Ministers.
Different criticisms of the oppositions
In the hemicycle, the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, defended a year 2021 of « reprise » thanks to a “growth of 6.8%” of GDP, with a “exceptional recovery effort” and of « protection ». The government praised the favorable employment situation and a “historically low youth unemployment rate”.
The general rapporteur for the budget, Jean-René Cazeneuve, described another year 2021 ” extraordinary “ for public accounts due to Covid-19, with the financing of partial activity.
However, this did not convince the opposition parties, who jointly criticized a bill presented with « retard », opposing it for different reasons. The Republicans repeated, through the voice of Patrick Hetzel, that “the public finance alert rating has long been exceeded”.
On the far right, MP Bryan Masson (National Rally) accused the Macronist majority “economic wanderings”in between “taxes on the middle and working classes” et “flaming inflation”.
On the left, the socialist Philippe Brun denounced the “Coue method” of the government, deeming insufficient the “42 billion euros disbursed” in 2021 for the government’s €100 billion recovery plan.
The “rebellious” David Guiraud has, him, “acknowledged that the Covid episode forces a certain indulgence”. “The richest contribute less and less to the state budget”he added, while environmentalist Christine Arrighi pointed « l’inaction » executive climate.