A weekend to decide: the government must decide in the next few hours how to adopt the first part of the 2023 budget, examined in the National Assembly since Wednesday, October 12.
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The resumption of the debates is scheduled for Monday, October 17. But that could be brief: the shadow of an appeal to Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a vote, unless the government is overthrown, hovers more and more strongly over the debates .
In the majority, there are always those who plead to go quickly, to put an end to these debates where the government continues “the jails” in the words of a Renaissance executive. Clearly, the votes of taxes, tax credits, against the advice of the government as we have seen since Wednesday. And conversely, there are those who argue for exhausting the debate, going until the end of the allotted time, to demonstrate that the number of amendments tabled by the opposition is so great that examination of the text cannot not be completed on time. And therefore, that it is necessary to use the 49.3.
There are also legal rules: between the activation of 49.3 and the adoption of the text, a deadline is provided to allow time for opposition to file motions of censure. This rather pleads for a 49.3 unsheathed at the very beginning of the week.
The question arises insofar as, with section 49.3, we are starting from scratch and the government is not obliged to repeat the measures already voted. For example: the increase in the tax on dividends, the return of the tax on the tax exile of entrepreneurs, a tax credit for energy renovation… So many elements voted this week against the advice of the government , sometimes with the help of part of the majority.
>> To read also: Why the use of 49.3 would ultimately suit everyone
“Certain amendments go against the attractiveness policy that we have been pursuing for five years”, explains an executive adviser who recalls the line set by Emmanuel Macron: neither tax nor additional expenditure. The fact remains that the government, depending on the choices it will make, will have to explain why it refuses to take up measures that were voted for by a majority of deputies.