It was an open secret. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, climbed to the perch of the National Assembly, Wednesday, October 19, to announce the use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution. This tool, the scope of which has been limited since the constitutional reform of 2008 (the government can only use it for budgetary texts and once per parliamentary session), allows the executive to adopt, at first reading, the finance bill for 2023 (PLF). Unless the oppositions manage to pass a motion of censure and therefore overthrow the government.
>> Budget: follow in our direct the reactions after the use of 49.3 by the government
The risk is actually very unlikely and this 49.3 announces others. Because in times of relative majority, the executive has no choice but to resort to this article, accused of being “an anti-democratic weapon” by the opposition. Franceinfo details what will happen in the days and weeks to come.
The motion of censure of the oppositions
The deputies have twenty-four hours to reply to 49.3 via a motion of censure, by collecting 58 signatures. It must then be debated within forty-eight hours of its tabling. Two possibilities then open up: if the motion of censure fails to obtain an absolute majority, fixed at 289 votes, the text on which the government has passed by force is adopted without a vote. If the motion of censure is adopted, it leads to the resignation of the Prime Minister and her government.
In fact, this last hypothesis is absolutely not favored. Elisabeth Borne is already confronted with the motion of censure of the Nupes, which has little chance of being adopted. The left immediately filed the 49.3 unsheathed. This motion, signed by socialists, communists, ecologists and rebels, denounces “the political fragility of the government” and his “contempt for national representation”. “Macronism has become authoritarianism”castigated Wednesday in front of the press Mathilde Panot, leader of La France insoumise at the Palais-Bourbon.
The National Rally has indicated that it prefers to table its own motion of censure on Thursday. “It seems complicated that we vote for Nupes when we see their political positions on the budget since the start of the debates”, argued RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy, to journalists on Wednesday. La Nupes does not intend to vote for it. There remained the option of a Republican motion. Not conclusive. “Toppling a government would not bring much to the country and would not solve the crises”had warned on Tuesday Olivier Marleix, the boss of the LR deputies.
The follow-up to the budget review
The text on the 2023 budget will now go to the Senate with a review scheduled from 14 november. This will be an opportunity for senators to come back to certain amendments adopted by the National Assembly at first reading and which were retained by the government. “We know the seriousness of the parliamentary work of senators on budgetary issues”slipped to franceinfo, with a touch of mischief, the entourage of Franck Riester, the Minister of Relations with Parliament.
The text will then return to the National Assembly at the beginning of December and should again be the subject of a 49.3. And this is only the first part of the finance law for 2023. The second part, “which sets the credits for each of the missions of the State as well as the ceiling of expenditure by ministry”, will be examined in public session from 27 October. In total, if 49.3 is used for each part of the PLF, the government will draw it five times: for the first and second parts, then again twice for the second reading and a last time for the solemn vote.
Another 49.3 in preparation for the Social Security budget
The first battle sOn the barely finished state budget, the deputies will continue on Thursday, October 20 in the hemicycle with that, probable, on the Social Security budget (PLFSS). Even if in the end no amendment is planned to reform the pension system – a desire of the Elysée which has aroused the ire of the opposition and the uneasiness of part of the majority in recent weeks -, its Despite everything, the examination promises to be very difficult for the executive.
The text anticipates a sharp drop in the deficit, to 6.8 billion in 2023 (against 17.8 billion this year), in particular thanks to the spectacular drop in the Covid bill for the health branch. The PLFSS projects savings of 1.1 billion euros on drug reimbursement, 250 million on analysis laboratories, 150 million on medical imaging and 150 million on complementary health insurance.
“Current conditions mean that there will surely be” a 49.3, acknowledged to AFP Stéphanie Rist (Renaissance), the rapporteur of the text. “Appeal” at 49.3 east “seriously considered” for this text, confirmed the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, Wednesday after the Council of Ministers.