Budget in France: Marine Le Pen demands new concessions

The leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen on Saturday called on Prime Minister Michel Barnier for final concessions to avoid censorship which she considers “not inevitable”, despite the very short deadline before the budget is returned to the National Assembly. of Social Security.

However, is the government ready for new actions? Alerting “on the bill of censorship” in an interview with Le Parisien, the Minister of Public Accounts Laurent Saint-Martin estimated that the text was the result of a compromise between senators and deputies. “Censoring this text would amount to censoring a democratic agreement.” Because the noose will seriously tighten on Michel Barnier from Monday.

The social security financing bill (PLFSS) on which the National Assembly will have to vote is full of irritants for the opposition (reductions in employer contributions, partial deindexation of pensions, dereimbursement of medicines, etc.).

“Censorship is not inevitable”

Without a majority, the Prime Minister could choose to activate article “49.3” of the Constitution, which allows the approval of a text without a vote. But he would be exposed to the first motion of censure of the fall which could be examined on Wednesday.

If the left and the National Rally unite their voices, the government will fall. This would be the first time since the fall of Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962.

“Censorship is not inevitable. It is enough for Mr. Barnier to agree to negotiate,” asserts Marine Le Pen in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, clearly annoyed that the RN, the first group in the National Assembly, was not approached sooner to “participate in developing a budget.

Received for the first time in Matignon last Monday, the head of the RN deputies said she remained “constructive”, but warned the Prime Minister that if he refused to negotiate with the RN, it would be he who would then take “the decision to trigger the censorship”.

“Taken barely 10% of the measurements”

She claims to have “taken barely 10% of the measures” from the counter-budget presented by the National Rally “to make them red lines, namely eliminations of taxes or duties with, in return, new revenue, since we “We obviously don’t want to make the deficit worse.”

Even if the Social Security budget was the subject of an agreement between deputies and senators in the joint committee on Wednesday, the government can still modify its text until the last moment to meet the demands of the oppositions.

For his part, Laurent Saint-Martin fears that the fall of the government will cause an increase in debt interest rates, thus undermining the State’s ability “to protect purchasing power”.

A right-centrist alliance that supports the government

The day after France’s rating was maintained by the S&P agency, his colleague Antoine Armand, Minister of the Economy, called on “everyone to take responsibility” to prevent the political crisis from being coupled with a financial crisis.

In the meantime, the Senate is finishing this weekend the examination of the “revenue” part of the state budget for 2025, displaying a constructive but demanding attitude towards the government.

It is a series of three budgetary texts which are examined by Parliament: 2025 State budget, Social Security budget and end-of-management bill for the current year.

Pillar of “barnierism”, dominated by a right-centrist alliance which supports the government, the upper house must vote on Sunday on the entire “revenue” part of the budget, a vote without suspense.

A week of debates

She will then tackle the multiple thematic budgetary missions, promising clear cuts in spending, on State Medical Aid (AME) in favor of undocumented immigrants, teacher training, the “Culture Pass” or the Universal National Service…

After a week of debates, senators generally approved most of the government’s flagship measures, seeking 60 billion euros in savings to improve public finances at half mast and reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP in 2025, against 6.1% in 2024.

Temporary tax on very high incomes, exceptional contribution from large companies, increased automobile penalty, increased taxation on plane tickets and gas boilers… These measures passed the senatorial filter without any problem or almost.

On the increase in the electricity tax, supposed to bring in more than 3 billion euros, he even anticipated the decline of Michel Barnier who finally gave up on its increase beyond the level before the energy crisis. Unsurprisingly, the one nicknamed the Chamber of Territories has also made several gestures towards local authorities, for a total of more than a billion euros.

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