RN deputies filed an appeal before the Constitutional Council on Thursday, to request “total censorship” of the public finance programming bill 2023-2027, adopted Wednesday evening after recourse to 49.3.
The far-right group disputes the fact that the announcement of 49.3 was entrusted to the Minister of Relations with Parliament Franck RiesterMonday at the National Assembly, during Elisabeth Borne’s trip to Ireland.
Mr. Riester had read in the Chamber a letter from the Prime Minister committing his government to responsibility, in order to pass the text without a vote. The National Rally believes that the intervention of Franck Riester would have required the publication of a decree attributing the interim to the benefit of the minister.
Marine Le Pen’s group also protests against the successive implementation of the 49.3 procedure on this text during an extraordinary session at the end of September, then during the ordinary session of Parliament.
A legal standoff coming?
The Constitutional Council has one month to rule. The public finance programming law for the period 2023-2027 was definitively adopted on Wednesday evening, after the rejection of a motion of censure from the left. This text expects a public deficit to be reduced to 2.7% of GDP in 2027, below the European objective of 3%..
Several opposition groups have warned the government of a possible legal standoff ahead. The government can only use the constitutional tool of 49.3 once per parliamentary sessionapart from its unlimited use authorized on the budgets of the State and Social Security.
Supported by legal opinions, the presidential camp believes that the 49.3 launched on Monday does not deprive it of its only cartridge during the current session. Because it would be a continuation of the first triggering of this constitutional tool at the end of September, on this same programming law, during an extraordinary session.
But opposition groups warned that they would contest this argument if the government used 49.3 again during the ordinary session, for example on the immigration bill, expected from December 11 in the Chamber.