“It is the country that we are putting in danger. » Guest of France 2this Tuesday, December 3, 2024, the Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand warned the deputies who intend to censor the government of Michel Barnier. The overthrow of the executive would necessarily have economic consequences on the country, but there is no risk, at this stage, of payment default or an American-style “shutdown”.
Follow our live broadcast from Tuesday December 3, 2024 after the tabling of the motions of censure
So if Michel Barnier's government were censored, Emmanuel Macron would have two choices: either quickly reappoint a new Prime Minister, or leave Michel Barnier at the head of a resigning government to take care of current affairs while he chooses his replacement.
Two special laws
Whatever the solution chosen by the President of the Republic, the deadlines for adopting a budget before the start of 2025 would be very short and the government would then have to rely on paragraph 4 of article 47 of the Constitution. This provides that the executive “urgently asks Parliament for authorization to collect taxes and opens by decree the appropriations relating to voted services”.
The procedure is detailed in article 45 of the Organic Law relating to finance laws. In reality, there are two procedures. The first must be applied before December 11. It allows the government to ask the Assembly “to issue a separate vote on the entire first part of the finance law of the year”. A text which would then be submitted to the Senate as part of an accelerated procedure.
If this procedure is unsuccessful or the date of December 19 has passed, the government can then rely on the second procedure. It allows a bill to be presented to the Assembly which gives authorization to collect taxes to finance public services based on the model of last year's budget while awaiting the vote on a new budget.
This option was only used once under the Fifth Republic, in 1979, but the political context was completely different. At the time, Raymond Barre's government had an absolute majority in the Assembly but the finance bill had been censored by the Constitutional Council for a procedural error. The government then passed an emergency law before regularizing the situation at the beginning of 1980 with the vote of a new budget.
The last resort with article 16
On the other hand, if the National Assembly decides not to pass these special laws, the situation is blocked. The risk of payment default is then real. In such a circumstance, Emmanuel Macron could then rely on article 16 of the Constitution which would give exceptional powers to the President of the Republic to take budgetary measures without going through Parliament.
