The National Assembly clearly rejected, this Tuesday, November 12, at first reading the finance bill for 2025, only the left voting for a text that it largely contributed to rewriting, and which was “distorted” according to the majority.
The “revenue” part of the text was approved by 192 deputies, from the New Popular Front, against 362, members of the four groups of the government coalition, the National Rally and the UDR chaired by Eric Ciotti. A dozen deputies from the centrist Liot group, or around half of its workforce, also opposed the text.
The entire text is therefore considered rejected, putting an end to its examination. This allows the government to start with its own copy in the Senate, even though it has been profoundly rewritten in the hemicycle of the lower house by attacks from the opposition, but also from deputies supporting the government.
“A budgetary mess”
“This budget is the budget of the New Popular Front, it is the budget that the French people chose on July 7,” commented LFI deputy Aurélien Le Coq, estimating at “75 billion” the “new revenues proposed by the New Popular Front and La France insoumise, for a positive surplus of 58 billion euros.
Figure contested by the general rapporteur of the Budget, the centrist Charles de Courson, who estimated that the amendments voted on in recent weeks “apparently” led to 65 billion additional revenues, but in reality to a “dry loss of tax revenue of more than six billion euros. “Number of amendments adopted, to the tune of 50 billion, respect neither our constitutional rights nor European law, or are even inapplicable,” he pointed out.
The majority speakers in turn denounced a “distorted”, “unrealistic and irresponsible” text, from which one of the main articles, relating to the French contribution to the European Union budget, was deleted. The result of the discussions, “it is a budgetary shambles which has neither tail nor head, which has no internal coherence, which 80% could not be applied and which is therefore unworthy of the respect that we owes to the French and to our assembly,” scoffed Renaissance MP David Amiel.
On behalf of the National Rally, MP Matthias Renault denounced an “unacceptable” budget for the RN, which had “set a very clear red line from the start, no overall increase in taxes”. “A majority of deputies refuse both the fiscal bludgeoning and both France’s inability to remain consistent with its European commitments,” said Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin after the vote, promising that a a certain number of amendments discussed in the Assembly would be taken up later in the parliamentary shuttle. “It is important that these debates were not for nothing,” he affirmed, while the discussions started on Monday October 21 were marked by the absence of majority deputies, and geometric alliances. variable from which the government has often emerged as a loser.