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French PM forces budget bill through parliament, risking no-confidence vote.
France‘s Prime Minister Michel Barnier faced being deposed by a hostile parliament Monday when his government pushed through a social security financing plan that has the opposition up in arms.
The conservative Barnier, who formed a minority government in September after an inconclusive general election, is now likely facing a no-confidence vote that could force him to quit.
Key to any such vote would be Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) party that has opposed several parts of the government’s 2025 budget plan, including the social security financing being debated in the lower-house National Assembly on Monday.
In the latest concession to the RN, the prime minister’s office said it was scrapping plans for a less generous prescription drug reimbursement policy from next year.
Barnier resorted to using executive powers to adopt the bill without a vote, a procedure outlined under Article 49.3 of the French constitution.
The move would likely trigger a vote of no-confidence that he could survive only if Le Pen’s party abstains, with Barnier having little hope of finding any left-wing support.
A no-confidence motion could come as early as Wednesday.
If the government falls, it would be the first successful no-confidence vote since a defeat for Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962 when Charles de Gaulle was president.
‘Accept to negotiate’
RN party leader Jordan Bardella said Monday that a censure motion was likely.
“The National Rally will trigger a no-confidence vote, except of course if there is a last-minute miracle,” he told RTL radio.
Le Pen reacted icily on Sunday after Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said the government did not plan any further changes to the social security budget plan.
“We have taken note,” she told AFP, calling the stance “extremely closed-minded and partisan behaviour”.
She demanded in an interview with La Tribune newspaper that Barnier accept further “discussion” about her party’s wishes.
“All Mr Barnier has to do is accept to negotiate,” she said.
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon on Monday said Barnier’s team remained “open to dialogue” to find a compromise.
The RN is the largest single party in the 577-seat National Assembly, with more than 140 deputies.
Barnier scrapped a previously planned increase on an electricity tax in a concession to critics last week.
Saint-Martin has highlighted that the budget proposals have already been discussed by a parliamentary commission ahead of Monday’s debate and changed following talks between National Assembly deputies and upper house senators.
“To reject this text is to reject a democratic agreement,” he said.
Debt threat
The Senate, where right-wing parties have a majority, partly approved the 2025 budget Sunday, giving the green light to government revenue projections in a vote boycotted by the left.
The Socialist Party, part of the left-wing opposition alliance, told Barnier it would vote against him if he used article 49.3 to push through a budget.
Saint-Martin warned that the fall of the government would raise the risk premium on French government debt, which has reached rare heights because of the country’s shaky financial situation.
France escaped a debt downgrade by S&P last week, with the ratings agency saying that “despite ongoing political uncertainty, we expect France to comply – with a delay – with the EU fiscal framework and to gradually consolidate public finances”.
Barnier has promised to improve France’s fiscal position by €60 billion ($64 billion) in 2025 in the hope of cutting the public-sector deficit to 5 percent of gross domestic product from 6.1 percent of GDP this year.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)