the Assembly prepares to vote on the “revenue” section

The deputies are called to a solemn vote Tuesday around 4:30 p.m. on the first part of the 2025 state budget, dedicated to revenue. This aspect could be rejected by the National Assembly, before the Senate takes it back in hand on Wednesday.

But the version submitted to the vote no longer has anything to do with the text tabled by Michel Barnier at the beginning of October: over the course of victories gleaned by the oppositions, notably the left, billions in additional revenue have been voted for, and several flagship measures rejected (car penalty, tax on dividends, surcharge on electricity, etc.). To the point of making this first part “NFP-compatible», according to the president of the Finance Committee Eric Coquerel (LFI).

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But if the left is preparing to vote for, this is not the case for the government camp (LR-macronists), which is indignant at a “anything tax“. In theory, the troops of the Barnier coalition are more numerous than those of the New Popular Front, suggesting a rejection in the event of good mobilization in the hemicycle, where each deputy present will be able to vote for an absentee. And this, even if the National Rally decides at the last minute to abstain.

If the revenue is rejected, the text would go directly to the Senate in its initial version. If there is adoption, on the other hand, the lower house would take no charge on the “expenses» of the State, with a deadline set for November 21. At this stage in any case, the government does not intend to activate article 49.3, preferring “give free rein to debate“, explains a minister.

The Senate in the starting blocks

Not far from the Palais Bourbon, the Senate impatiently waits to seize the budget. He will do so on Wednesday, with the examination in the Finance Committee of this same “revenue” section.

Michel Barnier has a very large majority in the upper house with nearly 250 senators out of 348, including around 130 within the Les Républicains group, the Prime Minister's family… And this one intends to carry weight.

«We feel that the Senate will have a different place in the debate. I believe we have a role to play, to show that bicameralism is more useful than we think», notes the general budget rapporteur Jean-François Husson (LR), who intends “put back a frame» in relation to the multiple measures voted on in the Assembly. While promising to release “several billion savings».

«In the Senate, we are in a room where we settle down, with a more consensual and negotiated dialogue», Appreciates a confident minister. The Chamber of Territories still risks giving the executive a hard time on the budget allocated to local authorities, taken to the tune of at least five billion in the government project, and even much more according to the calculations of local elected officials. …