The government’s decision not to table an amended finance bill (PLFR) after the discovery of the soaring public deficit animated the debates of a parliamentary commission of inquiry on Wednesday, with the implicit criticism of a arbitration which reduced Parliament’s room for maneuver.
In February, to urgently restore the situation, the then Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, announced 10 billion euros in savings on the state budget – the maximum that could be made by decree, without having to go through a PLFR in Parliament. It was about “most important decree of annulment which was published, I think, under the Ve Republic »according to Mr. Moulin, who specified that “10 billion additional euros” savings then had to be found.
But the advantage of a PLFR is “that we can also discuss recipes”underlined the president of the finance committee, Eric Coquerel (La France insoumise). Raise taxes “wasn’t the perspective we had”retorted Mr. Moulin, assuring that“there was no desire to bypass Parliament”.
The question of favoring a PLFR had caused turmoil even within the former majority, in particular between Mr. Le Maire, Mr. Attal and the Head of State. A amending finance law notably opened the way to a possible motion of censure from the opposition. Mr. Le Maire regretted before the Senate Finance Committee, at the beginning of November, that he had not succeeded in convincing people of the need for such a bill in the spring.
More “Who really opposed the presentation of this amending finance bill? »launched Eric Ciotti (Union of Rights for the Republic). Mr. Moulin replied that “the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister were on the same line, and [que] constitutionally it is the prime minister who decides”.
