Elisabeth Borne easily overcame the motions of censure from the National Rally (RN) and La France insoumise (LFI) on the night of Friday October 20 to Saturday October 21 in the National Assembly, after having drawn out article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the first part of the 2024 budget adopted without a vote. The RN’s motion received 89 votes and that of LFI 219 votes, out of the 289 needed to bring down the government. Their rejection constitutes adoption at first reading of the revenue section of the finance bill, transmitted to the Senate.
Previously, the Prime Minister had referred back to back “the extreme right” and “the extreme left”, their “same culture of demagoguery” and “excess”. “Holding the government to responsibility is never done lightly or easily. I do it out of duty, she said, because France cannot do without a budget. » These two motions had almost no chance of bringing down the government, since the Les Républicains (LR) group did not join them.
The “authoritarian vestige” of an “outdated Fifth Republic”
At the opening of the debates at 9:30 p.m., RN MP Alexandra Masson criticized a “poor and unrealistic budget”. She pointed the finger at the fuel allowance, “yet another gadget check for 100 euros”, calling on the government to “lower taxes”.
Speaker for the LFI motion, the president of the finance committee, Eric Coquerel, denounced the “relentless” use of 49.3, “authoritarian vestige” of an “outdated Fifth Republic” and “dysfunctional”, “disrespectful of the powers » of Parliament. The “rebellious” MP criticizes the government for rejecting the “most significant amendments” such as the “tax on superdividends” or the “tax on share buybacks” of large companies, which were proposed by the MoDem, an ally of the presidential camp , and which had been adopted in committee.
In the midst of the tearing apart of the New Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nupes), fourteen ecologists and fourteen communists signed the text of the LFI motion, but not their leaders, Cyrielle Chatelain (Europe ecologie-Les Verts, EELV) and André Chassaigne (Communist Party, PCF), nor the boss of the PCF, Fabien Roussel. No socialist has signed.
“The tax gift too many”
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister used 49.3 for the thirteenth time since she was at Matignon, defending a “responsibility” text with “16 billion euros in savings” and investments to “accelerate the ecological transition” . Elisabeth Borne drew the constitutional weapon on the second day of the debates in the Hemicycle, even before the examination of the articles, while this first part of the budget had been rejected in committee.
There are still many areas of tension, particularly regarding housing. Faced with the shortage, the executive has taken a step to partially reduce the tax reduction enjoyed by rentals of furnished tourist accommodation. But it is a “measure” in the eyes of the left, which would like to attack the “Airbnb tax niche” more head-on. The boss of Modem deputies, Jean-Paul Mattei, also criticized the government measure, “insufficient and poorly targeted”, on “the verge of a housing crisis”.
Members of the majority and the oppositions also failed to prevent the government from refocusing the “zero interest loan” system for the purchase of a new apartment in “tense areas”. Even if, here too, the executive has let go by adding new towns to these “tense areas” and by expanding the households eligible for this aid measure for the first real estate acquisition.
Retained thanks to 49.3, an amendment proposing very advantageous taxation for “international sports federations” is controversial. According to a source within FIFA, the government’s “objective” is to attract more to France the supreme body of world football, which has a branch in Paris but whose headquarters are in Switzerland. Green MP Jean-Claude Raux denounces “the tax gift too many. FIFA doesn’t need to evade taxes.”
In the Assembly, deputies will tackle the first part of the Social Security budget on Tuesday. It was rejected in committee but the government intends to use 49.3 again. For the fourteenth time.
