PARIS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced on Wednesday that she was engaging her government’s responsibility for the finance bill (PLF) for 2023, as provided for in Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, leading opposition left and extreme right to announce the filing of competing motions of no confidence.
In the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the government, which denounced a desire to stalemate the debates, blockage and “embolism” on the part of the opposition, had granted last Wednesday to the Prime Minister the authorization to use this procedure which allows a text to be adopted without a vote.
“We have made the choice of dialogue (…) we have honestly examined all the proposals (…)”, declared the head of government at the rostrum of the National Assembly after six days of debate on this draft budget.
“A large number of amendments are still to be examined. Everything indicates that we will not meet the deadlines (…). Then and above all, the oppositions have all reaffirmed their desire to reject the text”, she continued. , to justify the use of this article 49.3.
“Also, on the basis of article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution, I engage the responsibility of my government for the first part of the finance bill for 2023.”
Nearly 3,400 amendments have been tabled on the first part of the PLF 2023 alone, that of revenue, and the examination of this text, as well as that of the public finance programming bill for the years 2023 to 2027, has also begun the last week, were the subject of heated debate in the hemicycle.
Without waiting for the end of the Prime Minister’s intervention, many parliamentarians left the hemicycle and the deputy La France Insoumise (LFI) Mathilde Panot immediately announced the tabling of a motion of censure “immediately” in the name of the left alliance Nupes.
“For eight days, they have treated us like doormats. They accompany their brutality with a permanent lie. We consider this a shame for our democracy”, commented the communist deputy André Chassaigne.
The National Rally has said its intention to table “by tomorrow” its own motion of censure to denounce “the sorting” done by the government in amendments voted by deputies.
“We fear that the text of the Nupes is impossible to support”, declared Jean-Philippe Tanguy, deputy of the Somme and vice-president of the RN group, on BFM TV, promising a text “as consensual as possible”.
NEW 49.3 IN VIEW FOR THE PLFSS
The motions of censure tabled by the left and the extreme right have little chance of succeeding, since neither of the two blocs intends to vote for that of the other, while an absolute majority is required .
Of the hundred motions of censure tabled since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, only one was voted in 1962.
This is the first time that the government of Elisabeth Borne has used article 49.3 to have a text adopted. This constitutional weapon had not been used for the budget for 30 years.
While discussions on the revenue side of the budget were to end on Wednesday, Bruno Le Maire hinted that article 49.3 could be used again before the end of the week for the social security financing bill ( PLFSS), whose examination in session should begin Thursday at the Assembly.
Asked about this possibility, the Minister of the Economy declared on BFM TV, considering that the discussions on the budget had “made it possible to clarify the positions” of each: “You will see, I think that we can move forward there more quickly because that the debate has taken place.”
Elisabeth Borne announced, without specifying which ones, that a hundred amendments, including some from the opposition, would be kept in the 2023 budget by the government, which defends itself from any “forced passage”.
Bruno Le Maire has already mentioned the maintenance of a socialist amendment consisting in maintaining a 5.5% VAT on masks and another from the MoDem whose aim is to “lower the level of corporate tax” for small SMEs. . He also plans to keep a measure of the Republicans (LR) which plans to raise the maximum value of restaurant tickets from 11 to 13 euros.
On the other hand, there is no question of keeping the amendment relating to a tax on “super-dividends” adopted on the initiative of the MoDem, a member of the majority, against the advice of the government.
(Written by Myriam Rivet, Nicolas Delame and Tangi Salaün, with Elizabeth Pineau, edited by Bertrand Boucey)