Emmanuel Macron promised within a few days a special law to ensure the continuity of public services and the life of the country. Before a new text, early 2025.
A “special law” will be presented to the National Assembly and the Senate “before mid-December”. In his speech on Thursday, December 5, at around 8 p.m., Emmanuel Macron decided and set the course regarding France’s budget. A maneuver which will allow the future government to maintain the State’s tax revenues and ensure its functioning until the vote of a next budget, in 2025.
A decision which follows the motion of censure which was voted by the absolute majority of deputies, and more, Wednesday December 4, against the Barnier government. A total of 331 elected officials voted for the dismissal of the government, including all those of the RN, their allies and the NFP with a single exception. A minimum of 288 votes were needed to censure the Prime Minister and his executive.
The fall of the government plunged the country into political and economic unknowns, particularly regarding the 2025 budget, whether for the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS), which was examined in Parliament before the vote of the censorship, or the finance bill (PLF). As a reminder, the PLFSS and the PLF are two different things. If the two projects are presented at the same time, their nature differs. While the PLF sets the State budget for the coming year (expenditures and revenues), the PLFSS aims to control social and health expenditures and Social Security revenues.
A special law “to allow the country to invest as planned”
The option chosen by the President of the Republic is therefore recourse to article 45 of the organic law relating to finance laws (LOLF). It allows the country to operate without a voted budget. This “joker” is based on a “special bill authorizing it to collect existing taxes”, until the vote on a next finance bill at the start of next year. In other words, by continuing to apply the 2024 budget.
While the resigning government has not managed to pass a budget, it can table a special bill before December 19, 2024, this is the deadline which is now set. Through this process, Emmanuel Macron intends to “ensure the continuity of public services and the life of the country”, he declared Thursday evening. Second deadline: January 1, 2025. In fact, for this special bill to come into force, it must be promulgated before the start of 2025 by the Head of State.
The proposed text should be relatively summary, with an article of law authorizing “the State to collect existing taxes”. Emmanuel Macron recalled Thursday, “it is necessary to have this budget at the very beginning of next year to allow the country to invest as planned. For our armies, our justice, our law enforcement, to help our farmers in difficulty. Each chamber (National Assembly and Senate) will vote once for this special law, there will be no double reading.
Once appointed, the new government team will take over with the proposal of a new budget, debated from January 2025. In the columns of Le Monde, yesterday, the LFI president of the Finance committee of the National Assembly, Eric Coquerel, described the special law as a “reasonable option”.
Article 16: last resort and “full powers” for Macron
Please note, if the special law is not adopted, one option remains on the table beyond January 1, and not the least:article 16 of the Constitution giving Emmanuel Macron “full powers”, in theory, to impose his own budgetary decisions by decree. So, in fact, France could find itself completely without a budget in 2025.
“When the institutions of the Republic, the independence of the Nation, the integrity of its territory or the execution of its international commitments are threatened in a serious and immediate manner and the regular functioning of constitutional public powers is interrupted, the President of the Republic takes the measures required by these circumstances”, specifies the Constitution.
To do this, the Head of State must consult his Prime Minister, the Presidents of the Assemblies as well as the Constitutional Council.The National Assembly cannot be dissolved during the exercise of exceptional powers. The question is therefore whether the absence of a budget constitutes, or not, an important enough reason to draw out article 16. “It could be considered that the conditions are met for article 16 of the Constitution to be triggered”, judged the constitutionalist Benjamin Morel on December 5 in the columns of Ouest France.
Conversely,“if the answer to censorship is article 16. We have to worry about our democracy,” worriesThibaud Mulier, lecturer in public law at the University of Paris Nanterre for Public Senate. “This is a hypothesis which is, at this stage, completely far-fetched (…) To date, the public authorities operate regularly. France has a budget until December 31. And between now and then, a lot of things can happen,” aboundsJean-Philippe Derosier, constitutional expert and professor of public law at the University of Lille, still for Public Senate.
“There is absolutely no risk of a shutdown” in the American style
“If you don’t have a budget for next year, that means that civil servants are not paid,” said the former Prime Minister and now Calvados MP, Elisabeth Borne, on the set of C à You, last October 24 during the promotion of his book. A notable release, which recalls a practice rather associated with the United States. Indeed, this situation is possible on the other side of the Atlantic. It is called “shut down” and consists of closing administrations if the American Congress does not agree on the vote on a budget. However, in France, the operation is not the same.
To get there, the text would have to be definitively rejected by both chambers of Parliament: the National Assembly and the Senate, at the same stage of the process, and during the same reading, which is very rare. Also, the Constitutional Council should validate a special bill which would allow the executive to collect taxes and pay a minimum volume of credits. Ordinances could then make it possible to ensure the payment of civil servants’ remuneration. “There is absolutely no risk of a shutdown. There will be vital cards that will work, civil servants will be paid. We must get away from apocalyptic scenarios,” indicated Benjamin Morel, constitutional expert and lecturer in public law, in the columns of Europe 1, Monday December 2.