Marine Le Pen considers that the government “has ended the discussion”

The National Rally (RN) considers that the government “ended the discussion” on possible modifications to the Social Security budget, which will be submitted to the National Assembly on Monday and could cause the fall of the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, declared Marine Le Pen to Agence France-Presse, Sunday 1^is December.

“The government has expressed its wish not to modify the PLFSS [projet de loi sur le financement de la Sécurité sociale]it is extremely clear and we have taken note of this”she clarified, relying on statements from the Minister of Public Accounts, Laurent Saint-Martin, to the newspaper The Parisian.

The tenant of Bercy assures that the government will not make new concessions on the Social Security budget, despite the threat of censorship posed by the RN. “This text is no longer that of the government but the fruit of a parliamentary compromise between deputies and senators via a conclusive joint committee, which has not happened for fifteen years on a budget. To go back on it would be to sit on Parliament, democracy and deliberation, the compromise of which we respect”he said.

“In an interview this morning, Minister Laurent Saint-Martin indicates that the Social Security financing bill for 2025 will no longer be modified. Of which act. Through stubbornness and sectarianism, the government minority therefore puts an end to the cycle of negotiations, at the risk of provoking its censorship”estimates, for his part, the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, on X.

Marine Le Pen regretted that Michel Barnier's government did not want “move on elements that seem unacceptable to us”. The RN notably cited as “absolute red line” the partial deindexation of pensions in relation to inflation, provided for in the draft budget. “We will not let the French be robbed to repair the errors of seven years of macronism (…). There is a chance that we will draw the consequences of this extremely closed and sectarian behavior”she added, according to AFP.

“Grants” given to the RN

At the same time, the situation was also tense in the Senate which was finishing examination of the budget. Left-wing elected officials left the hemicycle on Sunday during the debates, denouncing a “strength” of the government and the right, who requested the re-examination of several dozen measures, a few hours before the vote on the revenue part of the text. They criticize the attitude of the government and the senatorial majority – a right-centrist alliance – who both requested the holding of a second deliberation for these measures, although they were voted on during the week by a show of hands, most often against the advice of the finance committee and Laurent Saint-Martin.

“We have just invented a new tool: senatorial 49.3. We spend hours, day and night, voting on measures and finding compromises. And with the wave of the hand, the deliberations are swept away. This is a real democratic problem in a serious economic and social period”was outraged by socialist Thierry Cozic (Sarthe), according to AFP.

“This government is a minority. He has chosen to instead turn to his right and his extreme right by refuting all the arguments of the left and he is realizing that this is not going to change anything in the attitude of the National Rally”who threatens him with censorship, added the communist Pascal Savoldelli (Val-de-Marne), the ecologist Thomas Dossus (Rhône) denouncing him a “extra boost”.

“This is in no way a denial of democracy”insisted for his part Laurent Saint-Martin, “it’s about raising the question of financial balance”he added. According to government estimates, the budget as modified by the Senate, without corrections, would have worsened the budget balance by 5.8 billion euros, which is considered incompatible with the objective of 60 billion euros. euros of savings, set by the executive. “We want a copy that is not degraded at the end of the debates”confirmed to AFP the leader of the Republicans on the budget, Christine Lavarde, senator for Hauts-de-Seine.

This second deliberation thus made it possible to reopen numerous sensitive debates, in particular on the price of energy, one of the red lines of the National Rally in terms of its threats of censorship. The Senate had already removed the possibility for the government to increase taxation on electricity beyond its pre-energy crisis level, ahead of Michel Barnier's announcement on the same subject.

The senatorial right, however, compensated for this measure with an increase in the gas tax, a measure that it finally agreed to remove on Sunday, at the request of the government. Several left-wing senators could not help but see « gages » given to the RN, while Marine Le Pen had expressed her opposition to this measure in recent hours.