Michel Barnier on TF1: Article 49.3, price of electricity, censorship… what to remember

“I accepted that the deputies debate until the end, I did not do 49.3 straight away, to cut off the discussion”, wished to remind Prime Minister Michel Barnier in his interview this Tuesday on the 8 p.m. news from TF1. “(The text) passed the Senate, and now it is in the joint committee” before, according to him, “a vote probably with a 49.3. Certainly even, because there will be no majority.”

• 2 Warning of “serious turbulence on financial markets” in the event of censorship

  Aware “since September 5 that there could be censorship”, the Prime Minister insisted that if this is the case, “there will be a storm, a fairly serious financial situation”, recalling that interest rates imposed on France in the event of borrowing on the markets turn out to be “already very high” and are “almost at the level of Greece”. However, he reassures that if no budget is voted on January 1, “There are measures that can be taken urgently to be able to pay” civil servants. “But it’s a waste of time.”

• 3 Price of electricity, proportional… It is open to concessions with the RN

  Michel Barnier remains open to concessions in his draft budget. What about his desire to increase taxes on electricity? If its price will already “fall by 9% (due to the drop in market prices, Editor’s note), we will see if we can do more,” he conceded, aware that the National Rally is opposed to this increase. Other subjects are under construction: “I am going to ask professor (emeritus of universities at Science Po, Editor's note) Pascal Perrineau to do work on proportional voting, which should be released in the spring.” Here again, this is a project which has historically been favored by the RN.

• 4 Efforts required of everyone… even “former ministers”

  “I try to provide calm, serene, objective answers. We are going to make (less) 4 billion on the functioning of ministries, less 4 billion on state agencies, we are going to save on the state's lifestyle,” he also recalled, without holding back to recall that he wishes to “ask efforts from former ministers and former Prime Ministers”. “There are plenty of measures, beyond the effort that we ask of companies with more than a billion turnover,” he concluded.