The draft budget unrecognizable after its passage in committee

This Saturday, the deputies complete the examination in committee of the part “ recipes » of the 2025 budget, largely modified compared to the government’s copy, which finds itself up against the wall before the debate in the hemicycle.

Passed through the mill of the Finance Committee, the bill presented last week is already unrecognizable with a quarter of the 41 articles reviewed that were deleted or rejected, many amendments worth several billion euros adopted, accompanied by new taxes or exemptions. So that the financial balance of the draft budget is profoundly transformed.

If the left voted for this text, all the other groups, the RN and its allies, the presidential camp and the centrists of Liot voted against due to an excessive increase in the tax burden compared to the initial text, of 60 billion euros according to Eric Coquerel, LFI president of the Finance Commission. Note all the same: the deputies will start from the initial text for the debate in session, which will begin Monday evening. But the content of the debates in committee is already putting pressure on the executive.

Entire sections of the budget rejected

Entire sections of the government budget were therefore simply rejected. In particular on ecological taxation: tax increases on electricity, gas boilers, and thermal vehicles have thus fallen by the wayside.

Same thing for local authorities: the articles aimed at freezing or reducing their revenues have been deleted, the deputies granting them on the contrary an extension of 500 million euros. Please note: this is one of the rare quantified measures among the approximately 170 amendments already adopted in just over three days of discussion.

Budget: a tax on “superprofits” approved by the Finance Committee

But the balance of the bill was above all upset by a cascade of new taxes, often at the initiative of the left. La France insoumise thus welcomed “ victories » on the « superprofits » and multinationals, for a dizzying total of more than 40 billion.

Proof that “ the New Popular Front has a majority in the Finance Committee of the National Assembly ”, while the Prime Minister “ Michel Barnier and his troop of jerks don’t have it », asserted the rebellious patriarch Jean-Luc Mélenchon during a meeting in Cahors on Friday evening.

Support for the government dispersed

The « common base » from the right and the center was in fact unable to prevent votes in favor of a lasting tax on high incomes, which the government only wanted ” temporary “. Nor was he able to curb a tightening of measures on share buybacks, the research tax credit or the maritime carrier CMA-CGM (owner of The Tribune).

The government camp has also sometimes sought the support of oppositions, such as the MoDem to raise the “ flat tax » on capital income, or The Republicans to reestablish a “ exit tax » against tax exile as dissuasive as when it was created under Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ministers argue over possible increase in gas taxes

A confusion that even the National Rally was worried about. “ I do not see any coordination between the different parties who support Mr Barnier », commented the deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy during the debate in committee, deploring not knowing “ where is this finance bill going at all? ».

A new 49.3 expected?

Is the government itself certain of this? Before the commission, the Bercy ministers, Antoine Armand and Laurent Saint-Martin, had promised to complete their text with amendments, including an increase in the tax on plane tickets and an extension of the zero-interest loan in the real estate.

But given the number and scale of the modifications voted on since Wednesday, the question of a forced passage into the hemicycle via the weapon of 49.3 could quickly arise, in order to avoid a new series of disappointments.

(With AFP)