The Senate adopts the draft budget for 2024 after reworking it

The budget continues its parliamentary journey. On Tuesday, December 12, the Senate adopted the finance bill for 2024, proposing savings in a very revised version compared to that adopted in the National Assembly. After a little less than three weeks of debate, the upper house controlled by the right voted on the text by 191 votes for and 103 against.

Among the measures voted on in the Senate are the extension to three days of the waiting period in the state civil service, the elimination of 10,000 positions in state operators, the reduction in the public development aid budget and a clear restriction of aid to companies employing apprentices. The senatorial majority also reduced by a third the budget for state medical aid for undocumented foreigners, which it wants to see restricted to the most urgent care.

A final adoption expected on December 21

On several issues, the senators and the executive have shown themselves to be irreconcilable. The Senate voted for targeting aid towards the most precarious thanks to new “electricity checks”, calling on the wealthiest to “take responsibility”. The government maintains its desire to limit the increase in prices for all households to a maximum of 10% in February 2024. The beginnings of a compromise have, however, been found for the upcoming creation of a territorial climate fund of 200 million euros. intended for local authorities carrying out ecological and energy transition projects.

The bill must now continue its journey to the National Assembly, where the government will probably again use article 49.3 of the Constitution to pass it without a vote, retaining only the measures that suit it. Lhe final version of the budget is expected on December 21, at the end of the parliamentary procedure.