The last budget of the five-year Macron does not stop annoying the oppositions. After a stormy examination in the National Assembly, which adopted it at first reading Tuesday, November 16, it is the turn of the Senate to seize the 2022 finance bill, from Thursday, November 18. But its examination could be cut short: the Les Républicains (LR) group plans to not vote for the first part of the text, which concerns revenue, at the end of the debates, Tuesday, November 23. This rejection would lead to stopping its course before the examination of the second part, which details the expenditure by ministry. And to shorten the debate, returning the text directly to the deputies for a second reading.
“This is where we are heading, confirms Jean-François Husson, rapporteur (LR) of the Senate finance committee. A budget bill so different from the starving elements of the start, in a pre-presidential context, raises questions. “
At the origin of the anger of the senators, the form but also the substance of the text. Like the deputies before it, the senatorial right is moved by the number of measures added by government amendment, and their amount (France 2030 investment plan, youth engagement contract, etc.), while the initial copy was very light. “By almost daily amendments and declarations, the government pours new decisions and ignores the Assemblies as intermediary bodies. Under the pretext of speed, only one person decides alone in the cockpit. We saw what happened at the time of the “yellow vests” ”, warns Mr. Husson.
“Euphoric budget”
Basically, the senator from Meurthe-et-Moselle criticizes the billions in spending added by the executive to the budget in the fall. “We were waiting for the end of“ whatever the cost ”, we see that the government is minimizing the economic recovery in order to keep provisions in terms of tax revenue to use it if necessary. There is reason to wonder about the sincerity of the approach ”, he goes so far as to advance. A reference to the criticism of the Court of Auditors, which had noted, in 2017, “elements of insincerity” in the last budget of the previous five-year term, scandalizing members of the Hollande government.
The other opposition groups are partly aligned with the critics of LR. But the left and the centrists believe that Parliament is intended to examine and debate the budget. “It is a budget that could be described as euphoric, it is based on an abysmal deficit of 155 billion euros, and we know very well that it will be modified after the elections, considers Hervé Marseille, president of the centrist group in the Senate. But we cannot deprive ourselves of a discussion. “
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