The government attacked on two fronts. The New Popular Front and the National Rally have each tabled a motion of censure against the government of Michel Barnier, after the latter resorted to article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the Social Security financing bill adopted ( PLFSS), Monday December 2.
The four left-wing parties that are members of the New Popular Front (La France insoumise, Socialist Party, Ecologist and Social and Democratic and Republican Left) were the first to submit their text, around 4:30 p.m., signed by 185 deputies including the four group presidents. The signatories of the text believe that Michel Barnier “continues the dogmatism of Emmanuel Macron’s supporters, who refuse any measure of social justice”et “made the choice of austerity” by asking the French to “pay the bill: taxation of retirees through the partial and deferred de-indexation of retirement pensions, taxation of patients through the increase in the remaining cost of care, taxation of apprentices, taxation of the health system through 600 million euros in cuts additional budgetary…”
The motion will be defended by the president of the Finance Committee Eric Coquerel (LFI) and should be debated on Wednesday, if the conference of presidents decides so on Tuesday. “It is with seriousness and responsibility that the left presents this motion of censure today, because it has never placed itself on the side of instability or chaos”they write in a joint press release. “But the absence of dialogue, the contempt for the proposals made and for parliamentary work make censorship necessary.”
The RN tabled its own motion of censure an hour after the NFP. The text, signed by the 140 deputies of the RN and the UDR group of Eric Ciotti, criticizes a budget which “does not respond in any way to the challenges of our country”and denounce “the absence of structural savings expected by the French on immigration or on France's contribution to the European Union”.
They point in particular “the deindexation of pensions” compared to inflation and “rising labor costs”which they describe as “red lines” by Marine Le Pen. They affirm that the government “never wanted to hear the proposals formulated by the RN group and the UDR group” in a counter-budget and to go against “the vote of 11 million French people” who supported them in the last legislative elections , despite the concessions granted by the Prime Minister to the far-right party.
It is the motion of censure of the left-wing parties which will be debated first, since it was tabled before that of the RN, franceinfo learned from the entourage of the President of the National Assembly. The conference of presidents of the National Assembly must decide on Tuesday, December 3, the date on which these motions will be included on the agenda. The two motions will be the subject of a joint debate, but of separate votes – and it is logically that of the left which should be adopted, since the RN has officially announced that it will vote for it, whereas in the Conversely, the NFP does not intend to vote for that of the RN.
