Michel Barnier does not rule out using article 49.3 of the Constitution to adopt the budget

The Prime Minister “would like” that the budget could be adopted by a vote in the National Assembly but assured that he will use 49.3 if necessary.

Nothing is excluded. Michel Barnier affirmed, this Thursday, October 3, on the set of France 2, that he would not hesitate to use article 49.3 of the Constitution to adopt the next budget.

“There is no majority so we will see. I would like it to be adopted by the National Assembly. It will be a difficult, serious and responsible budget. But if we do not succeed, we will use the 49.3, which is a tool of the Constitution”, indicated the tenant of Matignon.

49.3 is an article of the Constitution which allows the government to adopt a bill or a proposed law without submitting to the vote of the deputies. Its use results in the immediate suspension of debates in the National Assembly. The text then goes to the Senate.

The debates will start on October 21

Élisabeth Borne, when she was Prime Minister, held the government accountable 23 times before the National Assembly using article 49.3 of the Constitution. For the 2024 budget, definitively adopted on December 21, 2023, she had also used this constitutional weapon, which had triggered the ire of the left, accusing the government of “denial of democracy”.

Debates in the hemicycle of the National Assembly on the draft state budget for 2025 will start on October 21, according to parliamentary sources at Agence France-Presse (AFP). This finance bill (PLF) will first have to be adopted in the Council of Ministers, with the lower house counting on adoption in this body on October 10, according to these same sources.

The text will then begin to be examined in the Finance Committee of the Assembly, then its first part, relating to state revenue, must be examined from October 21 to 25 in the hemicycle. A solemn vote is planned for October 29, before the second part, on expenditure, is debated from November 5