No 49.3 at this stage, no formal vote on Tuesday. After six days of heated exchanges on the revenue part of the 2025 budget, the deputies interrupted their debates this Saturday evening without having completed its examination, since there were still more than 1,500 amendments to be studied at midnight, time of the closing of the session. Discussions will resume on November 5 at the National Assembly, confirmed this Sunday Laurent Saint-Martin, the Minister of the Budget, because the deputies will be mobilized next week on the budget of the “Secu”, the PLFSS.
In six days, they “adopted nearly 40 billion euros in additional taxes” which are added to the “30 billion in the government’s initial copy”, lamented Macronist MP Charles Sitzenstuhl. “It is really time for all this to stop,” he added, criticizing a “fiscal madness”. “The government coalition is sinking” and “there are not even boats for those who remain, […]I feel very sorry for our country,” said Jean-Philippe Tanguy, the leader of the RN in this budgetary battle.
Ecological “penalty” for petrol and diesel cars rejected
On Saturday, like the previous days, the government suffered a series of setbacks. The left thus adopted an exceptional tax of 10% on dividends distributed by CAC40 companies. The deputies extended zero-interest loans for real estate to the entire territory, for new properties (as proposed by the government), but also for old properties. They also made permanent the exceptional contribution requested from maritime freight companies, capped the tax loophole from which this sector benefits at 500 million euros, and approved a gradual reestablishment of the CVAE (Contribution on the added value of companies).
Another particularly symbolic vote of the new reality in the Assembly was the rejection of the government’s plan to increase the ecological penalty on almost all gasoline and diesel vehicles from January 1, 2025. This provision was rejected by 128 votes – mainly from elected RN, Ciottist, LR, socialists and communists. Conversely, 90 deputies, mainly Macronists, ecologists and rebels, voted to maintain in the 2025 draft budget this proposal which planned to lower the thresholds for triggering penalties applied to new vehicles, depending on their weight and their CO2 emission rate.
The Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, stressed – in vain – that new vehicles were emitting less and less anyway, and that it was therefore mainly a question of “supporting the greening of the fleet with constant efficiency “. The argument did not convince the RN and part of the left, nor the LR elected officials, although they were supposed to support the government.
Changing alliances
This vote symbolizes the game of now changing alliances at the Palais Bourbon. If the New Popular Front alone obtained the progressive reestablishment of the CVAE, the RN – accused by the Macronist camp of having an erratic political line on business taxation – mixed its voices with the left to cap the tax niche for shipowners , faced with the still very sparse ranks of the “common base” forces supposed to support the government.
Other amendments adopted, a series of VAT reductions for different sectors: food aid associations, passenger transport – except air -, repair companies, new social housing, or “first kilowatts” of gas and electricity consumed by households. Amendments made by Renaissance and the PS reduced the tax allowances relating to furnished tourist accommodation to 30%, thus including in the budget a provision intended to better regulate the “Airbnb” type accommodation market.
Already on Friday, the government had suffered numerous defeats on this “revenue” part of the budget, with the removal of the temporary surtax on large businesses (whose rates the left had previously increased), or the removal of the surtax on electricity, fought by his own troops.
The oppositions had also deleted other articles, such as that providing for a reform of the preferential tariff for access to nuclear electricity, said Arenh, which will disappear at the end of 2025. With a comfortable majority facing around forty deputies supporting the government. “No one feels respected by the Prime Minister so no one makes an effort,” notes a parliamentary collaborator from the Macronist EPR group to AFP.
Towards a 49.3?
The weak mobilization of deputies from the government camp in the discussions was also widely commented on. So much so that opposition elected officials suspect them of pushing for a 49.3, by allowing Michel Barnier’s draft budget to be profoundly reworked. Other deputies wonder if the executive is not rather seeking a rejection of the text, as in the Finance Committee, or a stagnation of debates which would prevent a vote before the deadline of November 21, linked to constitutional deadlines. In both cases, the consequence would be a direct transmission of the text to the Senate.
Unfounded suspicions, assured At Parisian government spokesperson Maud Bregeon. “We are not giving in to the ease of 49.3, […] the time for debate is a moment of great clarification which also allows us to build compromises,” she said.
Relatively similar observation on the side of Laurent Saint-Martin. If the latter called for “putting a little rationality into the debates”, he assured that the government wanted “the debates to take place to respect Parliament”. “We will see what the vote of the National Assembly will be. We will see how the Senate also debates it,” he indicated in response to a question on the use of 49.3.
“There will be a joint committee from the Senate […]. We will see what it decides and what the nature of the text is,” continued the minister. “If the text respects two things: 60 billion euros in budgetary efforts to straighten out the accounts and at least two thirds through decline in public spending, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t trust Parliament.” But if the latter “does not want to stick to these rules of the game that we have set, then the government will take its responsibilities,” he said. he added. With the prospect of a budget validated by article 49.3 for a third consecutive year.