Budget, parliamentary days of the parties… The tense return of the deputies, two months after the dissolution

Although the ordinary session of Parliament does not open until October 1, elected officials will return to work on Monday for various tasks.

A political return to school with a special atmosphere. The deputies return to work on Monday, September 9, two months after a trying dissolution. If the ordinary session of Parliament does not open until October 1, for the examination of the first texts, the committees resume their work and the parties hold their parliamentary days. The discussions promise to be lively while the newly appointed Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, has not yet formed his government.

The 2025 budget on the menu of the Finance Committee on Monday

This week begins with a baroque situation. The Ministers of Economy and Public Accounts, Bruno Le Maire and Thomas Cazenave, both resigning, must be heard on Monday by the Finance Committee of the Assembly, while awaiting the appointment of their replacements. On the agenda of the discussions, the 2025 budget. The head of government has less than a month to present it to the Council of Ministers before the start of examination in the National Assembly on October 1.

An extension could exceptionally be granted. But time is running out. The country is in the red, with a public deficit of 5.5% of GDP in 2023, and is targeted by a European Commission procedure known as “excessive public deficit”. “We are not going to wait indefinitely for a new government to start working on the future budget project”explains on France Inter the deputy Liot Charles de Courson, general rapporteur of the budget at the finance committee. The finance law must be adopted by December 31 at the latest. In the absence of a majority, Michel Barnier will probably have to resort to article 49.3 of the Constitution, hoping to escape censure.

Macronist MPs open their parliamentary days on Tuesday

On Tuesday, eyes will be particularly focused on Renaissance: former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will open the work of the parliamentarians of the Macronist party in Rosny-sur-Seine (Yvelines). “I think the atmosphere is going to be difficult, after a dissolution, the loss of the majority. The climate is a bit heavy”Senator François Patriat agrees with AFP. Especially since the group Ensemble pour la République (EPR, ex-Renaissance, 99 deputies) is going through strong tensions. Threatened with a split after the legislative elections, it has come back together with difficulty to elect its president, Gabriel Attal, when several former ministers – Gérald Darmanin, Elisabeth Borne, Aurore Bergé – proposed a collegiate leadership.

It is not yet known whether Michel Barnier will be invited to Rosny-sur-Seine. Gabriel Attal’s entourage assures franceinfo that there will indeed be an exchange between the Renaissance deputies and the Prime Minister, but the framework of this meeting had not yet been determined, Monday morning.

Other battles are now looming: for the presidency of the party, between Elisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal, initially, but especially for 2027. For his part, Edouard Philippe, who has announced his candidacy for the presidential election, will be in Reims for the return of his Horizons party on Wednesday and Thursday.

The LR are returning to Savoie from Wednesday

The atmosphere should be warmer in Savoie, on the land of the new Prime Minister, where the LR parliamentarians will meet from Wednesday to Friday. Threatened with disappearance during the early legislative elections, the group led by Laurent Wauquiez found itself at the center of the political game with only 47 deputies, until it won Matignon.

The Republicans will decide on their participation in the new government according to the program proposed by Michel Barnier, on purchasing power, public finances, immigration and security, announced Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau, his counterpart in the Senate, on Friday, at the end of their meeting with the new head of government.

RN elected officials meet this weekend in Paris

The RN deputies have a meeting on Saturday and Sunday in Paris. The opportunity for Marine Le Pen to reiterate that she wants an extraordinary session to open in September, so that the Assembly can meet as soon as possible, and to clarify her red lines with regard to the new Prime Minister, whom she is keeping under her tutelage. Speaking on France Inter on Monday, former President François Hollande said that with the appointment of Michel Barnier to Matignon, under pressure from the RN, “The extreme right is coming back through the window, whereas it had been pushed out the door by the voters”.

With only the critical support of LR and the presidential camp, faced with a unanimously hostile left, Michel Barnier needs the goodwill of the RN, which can at any time decide to associate its votes with those of the New Popular Front to overthrow him. The party with the flame has in any case promised to return at the end of October to the pension reform, which it wishes to repeal, perhaps with the support of other opponents. It also intends call on Emmanuel Macron to resort to referendums, particularly on “purchasing power, immigration, security, health”as Marine Le Pen recalled during her back-to-school speech in her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais).