The chairman of the Finance Committee in the Assembly, the rebellious Eric Coquerel, and the general rapporteur for the Budget, the centrist Charles de Courson, went to Michel Barnier’s office on Tuesday 17 September to obtain the ceiling letters that set the credits for each ministry next year. They left Matignon empty-handed, which refused to communicate them.
Eric Coquerel had warned. If the new Prime Minister did not transmit the ceiling letters prepared by the previous government to the Finance Committee of the National Assembly – which he chairs – on Monday, he would go and get them himself at Matignon on Tuesday, September 17. The rebellious MP arrived at 12:30 p.m. on Rue de Varenne, accompanied by the general rapporteur of the same committee, centrist MP Charles de Courson, for an on-site and documentary check. They had already co-signed a letter to Michel Barnier on Wednesday to officially request these letters again. “These are documents necessary to carry out our work”Eric Coquerel told the press before entering the Hôtel de Matignon. “The parliamentarians must be able to start working on the finance bill”added Charles de Courson.
Less than an hour later, the two parliamentarians came out empty-handed. The Prime Minister’s chief of staff and the secretary general of the government received them to inform them of their refusal to communicate these documents to them on the grounds that they are “preparatory to the decision”. “They considered that in law they had no obligation to communicate the ceiling letters, which we formally contested, because they are no longer preparatory documents.explained Charles de Courson We are fighting to ensure that the rights of Parliament are respected, otherwise how will our colleagues be able to work?. Eric Coquerel denounced “a democratic problem” : “We wonder why Mr Barnier is stuck in this undemocratic vision of things.” He has not has no intention of letting go. “He is dealing with two stubborn people,” he added, announcing his intention to go to Bercy on Wednesday to obtain these same documents. He also intends to study the possibility that the many special rapporteurs of his commission request each of the letters.
These letters, which set the mission-by-mission appropriations for each ministry, had been sent on August 20 by the then Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, who had signed them, despite his status as a resigned minister. They were not part of the hundreds of pages that had been delivered by Bercy to the Finance Committees on September 3, the government, which was no longer supposed to manage anything but current affairs, arguing that they could be modified by its successor.
Credit cuts expected for Labor and Ecology
On Monday, at 10pm, Eric Coquerel did indeed receive a written response from Michel Barnier, with whom he had spoken on the phone this weekend. The new Prime Minister promised him a document prepared by the end of the week “on the basis of the ceiling letters set by the previous government during the month of August”. Which did not convince the rebel. “The Prime Minister himself explained that the budget will be built on the basis of these ceiling letters, I believe that without further delay my committee should take note of them, announced Eric Coquerel in a press release this Tuesday morning. I therefore consider that it is not my duty to wait another week to obtain a document on the basis of the working budget sent to the ministries for almost a month.”
The content of several of them has already been leaked, in particular those addressed to the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which are seeing their credits reduced. The preparation of this stage of the budgetary process was largely disrupted by the dissolution, with no discussions having taken place at the beginning of the summer, as is customary between Bercy, Matignon and each minister. The total amount of expenditure in the 2025 draft finance bill (PLF) prepared this summer was kept identical to last year, i.e. 492 billion euros. This so-called “zero value” budget therefore does not take into account the amount of inflation, which mechanically announces savings of 10 to 15 billion euros.
Ten days late for budget review? “We’ll make do”
This is a new episode, and certainly not the last, in a budget review that promises to be increasingly chaotic in a new, fragmented Assembly. The first obligation set by law, the publication of the offprints by July 15 at the latest, had already been missed in July. Now the new government wants to postpone another date: the filing of the Finance Bill, which must take place by October 1 at the latest. Michel Barnier wants to delay it until October 9, after his general policy statement. Jérôme Fournel, Michel Barnier’s chief of staff, who until now held the same position with Bruno Le Maire at Bercy, contacted the chairmen and rapporteurs of the finance committees on Friday to gauge their reaction if this postponement were to be enacted. “We’ll make do. If it’s 10 days, that could help us meet the deadlines.”explains the rapporteur in the Senate, LR Jean-François Husson. In the Assembly, the deputies do not display the same leniency. “Eight days of delay, this is unprecedented under the Fifth Republic, it’s starting very badly”judged Eric Coquerel. Charles de Courson and he ask the Prime Minister again to respect the date of October 1st.
Update : at 1 p.m. after the arrival of the two parliamentarians at Matignon and at 2 p.m. after their departure.
