Social security budget: how the left gained 13 billion euros in additional revenue

There is money and the left-wing deputies have shown that they know where to look for it. In order to finance social protection, without involving the middle and working classes, they voted for more than 13 billion additional revenues. And, surprisingly, contrary to what happened in the Social Affairs Committee, the revenue part of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) was adopted, Monday, November 4 in the Hemicycle, by 126 votes in favor. and 98 against, the National Rally (RN) taking refuge in abstention.

“The work carried out within the framework of the PLFSS shows that other budgetary constructions are possible. And that we can find other recipes »welcomes Yannick Monnet, PCF deputy who sits on the Social Affairs Committee. “We managed to obtain a majority to pass measures that meet people’s needs,” also greets FI MP Élise Leboucher. Proof that a government led by the New Popular Front (NFP) would have managed to make itself heard in the Chamber?

Put capital to work

In any case, left-wing parliamentarians managed to put capital to work, a sign of a change in the political climate. Thus, Hendrik Davi, “After” MP, voted for an amendment which increases the general social contribution (CSG) on capital income from 9.2% to 12%. “This will free up 3 billion euros for our caregivers and retirees,” he pointed out.

Another amendment, tabled by Damien Maudet (FI), subjects dividends to contributions. And Léa Balage El Mariki, environmentalist MP, highlights other victories, at the expense of manufacturers, in particular those who refuse to include Nutriscore on their products. “This helps prevent chronic diseases,” she recalls.

“You have created taxes and charges for nearly 17 billion” euros, calculated Thibault Bazin, deputy of the Republican Right group. He forgets in passing that the government had planned 15 billion euros in cuts to the Social Security budget in the name of the fight against the deficit.

Cuts, part of which was canceled, and which targeted patients, retirees and apprentices. “We have found 17 billion euros in additional revenue to fill the Social Security deficit, Leah Balage El Mariki retorts. It's a bit like the hospital that doesn't care about the Vitale card. »

Throughout the debates, Macronie and the right defended the interests of the wealthy. Yannick Monnet also recalls that the NFP has “managed to obtain all this revenue despite the deletion of article 6, which was to question the 90 billion euros in aid to businesses”. Nearly 5 billion could have easily been taken from these, but the rights have banded together to preserve this subsidy to capital.

The end of the postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years

Other amendments adopted are symbolic, but nevertheless constitute a victory. Thus, one of them, voted in an appendix, requests an end to the postponement of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. It has no concrete effect. But this is the first time that Parliament has been authorized to vote on the subject: this shows that there is a majority in the Chamber for the repeal of the reform imposed by Emmanuel Macron.

The FI will present a bill to this effect in its niche at the end of November, which will then be taken up in the communist niche in the Senate. “We cannot, technically, repeal the pension reform within the framework of the PLFSS. But we can create the conditions for its repeal. This is what we did with the increase in revenue,” analyzes Yannick Monnet.

The left's victories, however, are fragile. This Monday, the RN abstained, refusing to come to the aid of Macronie. The opportunity for the representatives of the latter to take up again and again the antiphon of the extremes which touch. “When you have RN and NFP voting together, you can see that it is the collusion of populism,” attacked the president of the Modem group Marc Fesneau.

In reality, the RN explained its abstention by a rejection of the government copy of the PLFSS, but also by the “tax madness of the left”. The far right therefore makes the same criticisms on the revenue side as Macronie. “Their flagship measure to fight against medical deserts is to appeal to retired doctors… This is not a group mobilized on the retirement issue,” warns PS MP Mélanie Thomin.

At the time of writing these lines, deputies were examining the expenditure side of the PLFSS. If, at midnight Tuesday, November 5, the complete text was not voted on, the government could transmit the unamended PLFSS to the Senate. The left-wing groups therefore considered abandoning part of their amendments to favor the adoption of the text.