The deputies are looking this week at this text which was rejected by the National Assembly in October 2022. With a possible new use of article 49.3 from the start of the parliamentary year.
This is the text that officially launches the parliamentary year. After the traditional summer break, the deputies will examine, from Monday September 25, the public finance programming law (LPFP). For the occasion, the National Assembly will hold an extraordinary session of a few days, before the ordinary session, from October to June. Franceinfo returns to this text with an uncertain outcome for the government in the absence of an absolute majority for the presidential camp.
Because he must give assurances to Brussels
Be careful, very technical text ahead. The 2023-2027 public finance programming law defines the government’s budgetary trajectory for the coming years. “It’s a bit of a framework lawsummarizes the constitutionalist Benjamin Morel. These objectives make it possible to guide the major policies of the State and this will serve as a guide for the next budgetary texts.” This is how this law differs from the annual budgets, voted on each fall in Parliament.
The text presented by the government plans to reduce the budget deficit below 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027, as desired by the European Commission. The public finance programming law “should allow us to return to a public debt level of 108% in 2027, compared to more than 112% today”explains Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, in Le Figaro.
If it defines objectives, “the LPFP is not binding in the sense that the State can always deviate from itspecifies Benjamin Morel. But we must vote for it because it is a constitutional requirement and a European requirement.”
“If the law is not passed, that means that France is not making a commitment in this area.”
Benjamin Morel, constitutionalistat franceinfo
This is not the first time that the public finance programming law has been discussed in Parliament. In the fall of 2022, the text was rejected in committee then in session, by 309 votes to 243. The opposition groups all voted against, apart from a few abstentions. Then, in December 2022, the joint committee of senators and deputies had not reached a compromise. The executive is hoping this time for a favorable outcome, in order to maintain its political capital with Brussels. If the law is not passed, a majority executive warns:
“We would look like jokes in front of our European partners.”
A framework of the majorityat franceinfo
That’s not all: this same Macronist leader warns of a shortfall of “19 billion euros”through two batches of subsidies, “11 billion this year and 8 billion next year”. A figure that the opposition, however, questions.
Because its majority is still so uncertain
To obtain a favorable vote, the game promises to be very complicated for the government. Unsurprisingly, the entire Nupes is preparing to reject this programming law. “We will remain consistent with our previous votesannounces MP Cyrielle Chatelain, president of the Europe Ecologie-Les Verts group. The trajectory has not changed, nor has our vote.” The Liot group of independent deputies also intends to vote “largely against”according to information from franceinfo.
On the Republican side, this also seems compromised. However, Bruno Le Maire called in Le Figaro to conclude “agreements with all political forces who believe in the need to get France out of debt, in particular LR”. Response from Olivier Marleix, the boss of LR deputies, in the same newspaper: “It is out of the question to give [à Emmanuel Macron] whatever discharge it may be.” Contacted by franceinfo, the LR group announced that it would have to vote against the text and that a meeting is planned soon to adopt this position.
It is towards the National Rally that the balance would tip more favorably. According to several sources in the presidential camp, the group chaired by Marine Le Pen could abstain on the text and thus make it easier for the Macronists to obtain a majority. “Bruno Le Maire fights like a madman not to put a 49.3”delivers a Renaissance setting.
“Elisabeth Borne is very reluctant to use the 49.3, the abstention of the RN may make her waver in the prospect of not drawing it.”
A Renaissance settingat franceinfo
However, “nothing is decided”says an executive from the far-right party. “We remain open if the majority manages to prove to us that there is really a blockage which penalizes public finances. If they make it a political law, they will have a political vote” and therefore a vote against, warns MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy. In the majority, some also remain on their guard. “The RN makes it appear that it wants to abstain, it’s potentially a bluff”slips a Macronist strategist.
Because he can use another 49.3 after
The – very solid – option of using article 49.3 of the Constitution therefore remains on the table. “On the LPFP project, we are starting with a 49.3 from next Thursday, a priori”, a minister believes. And the same to add: “We will still be in extraordinary session. That avoids burning a cartridge.” Others plead for the use of this article to avoid passing the text thanks to Marine Le Pen’s camp. “There is no question that we will be satisfied with the abstention of the RN to pass the text”says a Renaissance MP, who denounces the normalization strategy of the far-right group. “They want to show that they can be accommodating.”
Despite its name, the public finance programming law is not considered a budgetary text. Theoretically, the executive would blow its joker by holding the government accountable. Since the constitutional reform of 2008, the latter has in fact only the right to one use of article 49.3 per parliamentary session, excluding budgetary texts where there is no limit. This is why the government chose to first examine the law in an extraordinary session. “If you have an extraordinary session, it resets the counters to zero”explains Benjamin Morel.
The text will nevertheless return to second reading in the Assembly during the ordinary session, which begins on October 2. But, again, no problem. “The moment when 49.3 is deemed activated, it is not the moment when the government draws it in the National Assembly, it is the moment when it is deliberated in the Council of Ministerscontinues the constitutionalist. So if you deliberate it in advance, even if you then use two in a row over two ordinary sessions, it works since it will have been deliberated in advance in the Council of Ministers.”