The government has triggered a new 49.3, this Monday, November 13, at the National Assembly for the final adoption of the 2023-2027 budget programming law, the 17th use of this constitutional weapon of the government of Elisabeth Borne. In an almost empty hemicycle, the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Franck Riester, took it upon himself to read a message from the Prime Minister, currently on an official trip to Ireland, holding the government accountable.
49.3 was immediately followed by the filing of a new motion of censure from La France insoumise, the probable rejection of which in a few days will constitute definitive adoption of this public finance programming text.
The absence of the Prime Minister to hold the government accountable before the Assembly is not a first. “Under Michel Rocard (Prime Minister from 1988 to 1991), several 49.3s were triggered by the Minister of Relations with Parliament or the N.2 of the Lionel Jospin government,” recalls a parliamentary source.
This text “ensures our credibility vis-à-vis our European partners” and will make it possible to unlock “18 billion euros from the European recovery plan”, said Elisabeth Borne in the letter read by Franck Riester, an argument often contested by oppositions. The government promises in this law to reduce the public deficit from 4.9% of gross domestic product in 2023 to 2.7% in 2027, below the European objective of 3%. The Senate with a right and center majority for its part demanded a return below 3% two years earlier, in 2025, and a public deficit reduced to 1.7% in 2027, but was unsuccessful.
Legal debate
Excluding State and Social Security budgets, for which the use of 49.3 is unlimited, the government only has the right to use this constitutional weapon on a single text per parliamentary session. But the executive, supported by legal opinions, assures that it is not using this cartridge for this public finance programming law, since it had already been the subject of a first 49.3 at the end of September, when of an extraordinary session. The opposition could try to challenge this legal argument if the government uses 49.3 again during this ordinary session, for example on the immigration bill.