In the plenary hall, MEPs voted against eight articles of the 2023-2027 Budget Bill, a text that was rejected in committee a few days ago.
The opposition, which rejected the 2023-2027 budget programming bill in committee, partially unraveled that text in Tuesday’s assembly, rejecting key articles against the government’s advice and announcing an uphill battle over the budget.
“What happened here tonight is serious!” Finance Minister Gabriel Attal said indignantly at the end of the debate in the general uproar.
“The message that has been sent is that a coalition of irresponsibility has sent back the image of a country unable to aim to control its public spending,” he fumed.
“You’re acting like a naughty”
“You have no right, Mr. Minister, to treat MPs as irresponsible,” countered the leader of the elected communists, André Chassaigne. “You are acting like an impertinent person who doesn’t respect national representation,” he added.
“It’s not all the oppositions who are wrong, it’s obviously you who are wrong,” said Marine Le Pen, president of the RN group.
In quick succession, the opposition rejected eight articles. The first, defeated by a vote of 157 to 149, established the stability of the public sector workforce over the five-year term. The majority was also placed in a minority (184-194) on the article establishing the budgets allocated to the state’s missions, then on three articles on the local authorities, which simultaneously established state support and the evolution of their operating expenses over the period of five years.
The course of the National Health Insurance Spending Objective (Ondam) also did not resonate with MPs (190-188).
As with the other texts, the executive is faced with the lack of an absolute majority in the National Assembly. And contrary to what it is preparing for the 2023 draft budget, the government does not intend to use Article 49.3 of the Constitution – which allows for adoption without a vote – for the program law.
Because outside of the Treasury Act and the Social Security budget, the government can only use 49-3 once per session and doesn’t want to burn this tape from this Programming Act.
In its original version, the text of the program envisaged bringing the deficit below 3% of GDP by 2027 and stabilizing the number of civil servants over the entire five-year period.
The rejection in committee did not prevent the original bill from arriving in the Assembly. The formal vote on the text by MEPs is scheduled for October 25th.