More than three months after being tabled in Parliament, the 2025 budget was adopted as a whole by the Senate on Thursday January 23, in a vote without much suspense. The senators voted by a large majority (217 votes for, 105 against) for the entire finance bill, which includes the revenue and expenditure part. The left did not vote for this text, citing a “budget which is only a copy of the Barnier budget”in the words of socialist senator from Sarthe Thierry Cozic.
The budget adopted by the upper house is, in fact, the result of the work of the previous government. Rejected by the National Assembly in mid-November (on the revenue side, which led to the rejection of the entire finance bill)on the other hand, it was the subject of long work in the Senate, while François Bayrou, the new Prime Minister, had said that he would take up this text to construct his budget, due to lack of time. But, unlike the previous government which had mentioned an effort of 60 billion euros, the Bayrou government aims for an effort of 32 billion in savings and 21 billion in revenue to reduce the public deficit to 5.4% of GDP in 2025.
On the revenue side, the temporary effort on income tax for the wealthiest households (2 billion euros hoped for) and the exceptional contribution on the profits of large businesses (8 billion) appear in the text. Just like a reinforced penalty on the purchase of thermal cars or an exceptional tax on the CMA-CGM shipowner. The Senate, on the other hand, was opposed to increasing taxes on electricity beyond the pre-Covid crisis level.
On the spending side, senators voted for numerous savings, as they had promised. To limit the public deficit, numerous amendments proposed by the government have been adopteds. Almost all ministries are affected by these budget cuts: Housing and Ecology have each been cut by more than a billion euros, public development assistance has lost nearly 800 million euros, Research and Higher Education more than 600 million, and France 2030 mission 535 million euros… The senators, however, decided to limit the effort of local authorities to 2.2 billion euros in 2025, compared to 5 initially planned, which had provoked opposition from elected officials.
-Senators also voted to abolish the French Agency for the Development and Promotion of Organic Agriculture and the Universal National Service. Several concessions made to the socialists, including the very symbolic restoration of the 4,000 teaching positions promised by François Bayrou, were also eliminated. But they could soon be reinstated.
This budget vote in the Senate is, in fact, the first step in a path that still looks tortuous. On January 30, a joint committee, which will bring together seven senators and seven deputies, will try to find a compromise on the text. It should thus be largely modified before being submitted to Parliament at the beginning of February, under penalty of censorship from the Socialists. Their vote could bring down the Bayrou government if the rest of the left and the National Rally also voted for censure.
“In any case, we will dialogue, but in an extremely limited space for negotiations,” Eric Lombard, the Minister of the Economy, admitted on Thursday on France 2. The socialists have indicated that they will discuss things up to the joint committee, in order to obtain new concessions.
