Thousands of amendments examined, hundreds of millions of euros in additional spending, a few political setbacks, five 49.3s and an article censored by the Constitutional Council. Three months to the day after its presentation to the press in the large room of the Hôtel des Ministers in Bercy, the finance bill for 2024 completed its annual marathon, Thursday, December 28, on a slightly unpleasant note for the ‘executive.
The Constitutional Council, referred to the text by elected officials from the Les Républicains party and the New Ecological and Social Popular Union, censored article 31, introduced by an amendment from the majority with the support of the government to exempt from taxes international sports federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee and their employees domiciled in France for five years.
This preferential regime, granted in the name of France’s attractiveness and which particularly targeted FIFA, was deemed contrary to the principle of equality before the law and before public offices. By reserving it only for federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee, the executive did not base itself on objective and rational criteria with regard to the goal of attractiveness that it was pursuing. “We take note of the decision of the Council [constitutionnel] regarding this article, which was intended to strengthen the attractiveness of France to locate international sports federations there”, Bercy communicated on Thursday.
Apart from this device with high political stakes on which the Council of State had already alerted the executive, the judges also considered that the article which allocates Livret A funds to the financing of the defense industry had not not its place in a finance law, but the rest of the text obtained the green light from the constitutional judge.
Even more than the previous ones, the 2024 draft budget should be that of the exit of the “ whatever it costs » inherited from the health crisis, and the “ end of abundance » theorized by Emmanuel Macron, in an environment that remains uncertain – rising interest rates, still high inflation and European budgetary rules again in force after being suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The mark of an economy under inflation
The text partly keeps its promise: the bulk of the 16 billion euros in savings it contains comes from the cessation of anti-inflation crisis measures – price shield on gas, gradual reduction of the shield on electricity , end of aid measures for energy-intensive companies. Of the 10 to 15 billion euros in savings promised in mid-June during the “public finance meetings” in Bercy, and expected in health, employment and even housing, very few have been achieved.
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