The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, again used 49.3 late Tuesday, November 7, to pass without a vote in the National Assembly the second part of the 2024 finance bill, devoted to “expenditures” of the State. This is the sixteenth time that the Prime Minister has called the government’s responsibility into question since her arrival at Matignon, which allows the text to be adopted without a vote.
“We cannot deprive France of a budget” and “we can do so all the less since we know well that there is no alternative majority capable of agreeing around a budget”, justified the Prime Minister during a short statement from the Assembly gallery, where she was booed upon her arrival shortly before midnight.
Immediately, the La France insoumise (LFI) group announced the filing of a motion of censure. Its probable rejection during the week will mean adoption at first reading of this entire 2024 draft budget, before its transmission to the Senate.
The text of the LFI motion, consulted by Agence France-Presse, denounces the “austerity cure” of the budget “while our public services are strangled by inflation and on the verge of collapse” and “the authoritarian slope is sliding down by the government” with its 49.3.
“With the back of its hand, the government is once again flouting democracy and the many victories voted for (…) Let’s censure this authoritarian government! », declared on X the leader of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot.
“What’s the point” of debating?
Elisabeth Borne deplored, for her part, the “particularly slow pace” of the examination of a text which “could have been distorted” by additional “billions of expenses”. In addition, “none of the opposition groups seem to want to move away from their principled position: rejecting the budget, whatever it contains,” she also regretted.
The deputies examined on Tuesday evening the examination of the “defense” credits of the finance law, with a budget of the Ministry of the Armed Forces expected to increase by 3.3 billion euros, to reach 47.2 billion in 2024. But “ what’s the point of debating, the communist Fabien Roussel asked in the hemicycle, “if in the coming hours, once again, a 49.3 is going to fall on this Assembly like a guillotine? “.
The now well-regulated ballet of 49.3, which immediately interrupts the debates in the Assembly, provokes indignation among the oppositions, but also frustration in the ranks of the majority, whose deputies lose speaking time and visibility in the hemicycle.
On Monday, Elisabeth Borne recognized a “difficult” budgetary period for deputies, promising them more “visibility” and debates on future texts. No doubt to spare parliamentarians, the government waited a few days before drawing out its new 49.3, giving the Assembly time to examine certain sovereign credits or the always sensitive overseas budget.
Consensus amendments on fighting fires or school bullying
Some consensual amendments were thus able to be approved. Among them, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, promised 146 million euros for civil security, in particular to fight against forest fires. His education colleague, Gabriel Attal, supported an amendment providing 30 million euros to finance “anti-harassment brigades” in schools.
But the government remains cautious on this spending, keen to present a “serious” budgetary trajectory to the rating agencies.
With 49.3, the executive has the possibility of choosing or rejecting the amendments of its choice, whatever their fate in the Hemicycle. In the opposition, the government is criticized for not retaining any structuring parliamentary proposals. “There is no real desire to negotiate,” denounces socialist Christine Pirès Beaune.
One of the most sensitive subjects, the “housing question” was not even discussed in session, indignant the “rebellious” Eric Coquerel, president of the finance committee. “It’s a social bomb,” he stressed, calling for lower rents to be controlled and “the construction of 200,000 public housing units.”
Once the motion of censure has been overcome, this finance bill will head to the Senate, where it will be examined from Thursday, November 23.