Arthur de Laborde / Photo credit: Amaury Cornu / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 08:20, September 27, 2023

Bruno Le Maire presents this Wednesday morning the draft finance law in the Council of Ministers. A step that marks the beginning of the parliamentary marathon around the budget until Christmas. The debates around the major text of the new school year promise fiery hours in Parliament and surely, again, a recourse to the very controversial article 49.3.

In 2022, it took no less than ten 49.3 to pass the budget and the task promises to be as difficult for the 2024 version, for lack of an absolute majority. While the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, presents this Wednesday morning the draft finance law in the Council of Ministers, for several weeks, the government is preparing minds for a new passage in force. Traditionally, oppositions refuse to vote on finance bills, without forgetting that the political configuration makes any compromise impossible.

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A bill that divides the political class

Bercy repeats it tirelessly: the accounts are in the red after three years of "whatever it costs". The urgency is therefore to consolidate public finances. €16 billion in savings should be recorded in the budget, two-thirds of which come from the removal of the tariff shield, set up in response to the energy crisis. But these arbitrations satisfy no one outside Macronia. The Republicans consider the savings insufficient, as does the National Rally, which also sees submission to Brussels. While the left denounces the return of austerity.