Budget: possible recourse to 49.3 on the menu of the Council of Ministers, reveals the government spokesperson

This is further proof of the feverishness of the Barnier government. The Council of Ministers should ratify on Wednesday the possibility for the government to use article 49.3 of the Constitution to pass the 2025 budget to the National Assembly, even if Michel Barnier wishes at this stage the debates to continue, indicated the government spokesperson Maud Bregeon.

“We will discuss it, as is the rule, it is a constitutional possibility available to the government,” said Maud Bregeon on France 2. However, the use of 49.3, i.e. adoption without a vote “is not the will of the Prime Minister, and we will let the debates take place as much as necessary” in the National Assembly, clarified the government spokesperson.

The rule is that the use of 49.3 is preceded by a deliberation in the Council of Ministers. The day before, during the examination of the budget, the debates in the Assembly were tense: the temporary surtax on high incomes in the 2025 draft budget was made permanent by the deputies against the advice of the government, which saw in the at the same time his own supporters oppose a flagship measure of the Social Security budget in committee.

This is not the only setback. The general budget rapporteur, the centrist Charles de Courson (Liot), had an amendment adopted aimed at limiting the possibility for very well-off taxpayers to use tax advantages or tax credits to reduce the bill. If the overwhelming majority of NFP and RN deputies voted for the amended text, the presidential coalition groups were divided between for, against and abstentions.

The government's text “was unbalanced by a form of ideology of permanent fiscal revenge”, deplored the macronist Mathieu Lefèvre, (EPR), hoping that the executive will not retain this perpetuated version in the event of recourse to 49.3 to make pass the text without a vote.

“I think that Mr. Barnier has already planned to trigger 49.3, and that he is making fun of the world,” commented Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN), regretting that the government “does not negotiate anything” and “has not supported no amendment from anywhere in the opposition.”