Will the future government have the right to exceed the deadline of October 1 set by law?

The draft finance bill for the coming year must be submitted to Parliament by October 1 at the latest. But this deadline is looking untenable as a new Prime Minister has not yet been appointed.

Nearly two months after the legislative elections, France still does not have a new Prime Minister… nor a budget for next year. The usual timetable for preparing the draft finance bill (PLF) for 2025 has been completely disrupted by the political situation. While Emmanuel Macron is still slow to decide on the name of Gabriel Attal’s successor and speculation is rife, on Tuesday, September 3, the legal deadlines are becoming increasingly difficult for the future executive to meet.

The resigning government of Gabriel Attal has tried to prepare the ground to ensure that the State has resources by January 1. The Ministry of Finance has worked on a provisional budget and sent ceiling letters, which determine the credits of the ministries, on August 20, one month behind the usual schedule.

Another important step is still awaited: sending it to parliamentarians “of a report indicating the credit ceilings envisaged for the coming year for each mission of the general budget”Normally scheduled for July 15, specifies the National Assembly. A situation that prompted deputies Eric Coquerel (LFI) and Charles de Courson (Liot), respectively president and general rapporteur of the finance committee of the Assembly, to demand in a letter on Friday, summary documents on the budget in preparation. The committee is supposed to meet for the first time on Wednesday, for the moment without a working basis.

Even if the Minister of the Budget, Thomas Cazenave, responds favorably to the requests of the deputies, it is a new government that will soon be the interlocutor of the parliamentarians. Once appointed, it will have very little time to prepare its budget. According to the law, the PLF must be submitted to Parliament “no later than the first Tuesday in October of the year preceding the year in which the budget is implemented”, or October 1st this year. The law must then be voted on by the Assembly and the Senate, and published before January 1st. However, it is a huge text – 416 pages for the 2024 version – which involves all the ministries, and whose development takes a lot of time.

The situation could become untenable for the future government. Will the latter then be authorized to submit its PLF later? Matignon, confirming information from the World, explains to franceinfo that the General Secretariat of the government has carefully examined the legality of this hypothesis, while specifying that “only the next government (…) will arbitrate and submit the 2025 budget”. “The Constitution provides for 70 days of examination of the PLF by Parliament”and would therefore allow “theoretically, the next government, if it wishes, will be able to submit the budget to Parliament by mid-October”Matignon believes.

An interpretation of the Constitution that is not shared by Anne-Charlène Bezzina, constitutionalist and lecturer in public law at the University of Rouen. “Article 47 of the Constitution refers to the law, in this case the organic law relating to finance laws, so that is what we must look at”estimates the specialist with franceinfo. This law “does not explicitly provide for the case of a delay in presentation.” Parliamentarians could therefore refer the matter to the Constitutional Council if they believe that the government is not respecting the law.

In a decision rendered in July 2001, the Sages had also had to rule on a deadline not respected by the government on a budget text. “He had considered that if a delay were to occur, it should be examined in terms of the ‘principle of continuity of the nation’summarizes Anne-Charlène Bezzina. This means, basically, that if no one objects to it and it does not hinder the functioning of the state, then there is no problem.”

We have to go back to 1962 to find the only example, since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, of a finance bill being presented (and voted on) late. “The budget was only presented in November. France had just experienced a dissolution and a referendum wanted by General de Gaulle”recalls the constitutionalist. The budget has finally “was adopted in February”, without this posing any particular problem.