A new hiccup for the macronists without an absolute majority: the National Assembly on Wednesday rejected the 2021 budget settlement bill, a step usually quite banal for the validation of public accounts.
The deputies rejected the text by 173 votes against 167, via a coalition of oppositions.
This bill is a technical text which looks back over the past financial year and is only intended to take note of its execution. Its rejection does not have any consequences on the budgetary programming for the year 2023, nor on the capacity of the State to honor its budgetary commitments for the year 2022, relativized the Minister of Public Accounts.
The government was counting on a last green light from the National Assembly during this final reading, after the rejection of the text in the Senate, where the right pinned the very degraded situation of public accounts, with a public deficit of 6.4% of GDP in 2021.
After the vote against by the National Assembly, with six votes, the government could resubmit a settlement bill to the Council of Ministers.
On Wednesday, the right and left oppositions jointly criticized a text presented late, opposing it for different reasons.
The LR right repeated through the voice of MP Patrick Hetzel that the alert rating on public finances has long been exceeded.
On the far right, RN Bryan Masson accused the Macronist majority of economic wanderings between taxes on the middle and working classes and soaring inflation.
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On the left, the socialist Philippe Brun evoked the Cou頻 method of the government which fell asleep, judging insufficient the 42 billion euros disbursed in 2021 for the recovery plan of the government of 100 billion euros.
The rebellious David Guiraud has recognized that the Covid episode forces a certain indulgence. But the richest contribute less and less to the state budget, he denounced, while the ecologist Christine Arrighi pointed to the climate inaction of the executive.
In the hemicycle, the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure defended a year 2021 of recovery thanks to growth of 6.8% (of GDP), with an exceptional recovery and protection effort. The government praised the favorable employment situation and a historically low youth unemployment rate.
The general rapporteur for the budget Jean-Ren Cazeneuve (Renaissance) once again described an exceptional year 2021 for the public accounts due to the Covid, with the financing of partial activity.