Final point in Parliament on the Social Security budget for 2023, after the seventh 49.3 of the fall: the National Assembly rejected a motion of censure by Nupes on Friday evening, resulting in the final adoption of the text.

The motion collected only 87 votes, far from the absolute majority of the 288 necessary to bring down the government.

And weak result for the left, at the end of the week when the SNCF strike was able to prevent parliamentarians from going to Paris, according to members of the alliance.

In front of a sparse hemicycle, Elisabeth Borne deplored that the succession of motions of censure had "considerably reduced the useful time for the debate": only on this budget, "6 motions of censure, more than in three years for Michel Rocard", scolded the Prime Minister, quite annoyed.

Prime Minister between 1988 and 1991, the socialist Rocard is the one who used the 49.3 the most.

The RN did not join the left

The motion under discussion on Friday followed the triggering again on Wednesday of the constitutional weapon of 49.3 by the Prime Minister, in order to pass this bill without a vote.

"You are spinning like a broken record," LFI deputy Manuel Bompard told him on Friday, against a background of apostrophes on the left as to an "end of reign" of the Macronists.

"We have to put the chicken back on the egg: without 49.3, no motion of censure", recalled Moetai Brotherson, of the communist group.

Assuring to seek "relentlessly compromises in good faith", the head of government, she, proposed to the opposition "to initiate a discussion, in transparency, on the way" to "discuss at greater length the substance of the texts", rather than to give "the spectacle of heartbreak and sterile debates".

Neither the LR deputies nor the independents of the Liot group were present.

The RN group did not join its voices to those of the left, unlike previous times.

“We are not here to serve as an advertising agency” at Nupes but “for the future, we do not forbid ourselves anything”, warned its speaker Laurent Jacobelli.

The text of the Nupes had marked its distances: “There will never be either complacency or connivance with the extreme right”.

Sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan voted for the motion.

"Breathless health system"

The Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) was approved just in time, on the eve of the expiration of the 50-day review period set by the Constitution.

This draft budget provides for health prevention measures (appointment at key ages in life), the rise in the price of tobacco, anti-social fraud provisions, and again the creation of a fourth year of internship in general medicine “as a priority” in medical deserts.

Savings are also planned, in particular of 250 million on medical analysis laboratories.

They are on strike until Saturday against this "plane blow" on their profits.

Borne boasted "massive means for our hospital" and measures to protect the "most fragile", when the left pointed to "a breathless health system".

The discussions were limited in the hemicycle, by the succession of 49.3 activated sometimes preventively, and allowing the government to choose the amendments retained.

Dominated by the right, the upper house rejected the draft budget in a new reading on Tuesday, being annoyed that the government had "swept away" its "emblematic" amendments.

Among these, one called for raising the retirement age to 64 – a consistent Senate marker for several years.

But the government has chosen to propose its reform in another upcoming bill, the outlines of which will be announced in mid-December and which is strongly agitating people's minds.

"You have retreated to jump better," said the rebellious Manuel Bompard, saying he was "ready for battle" and announcing a parade in Paris on January 21, "at the call of youth".

Borne hopes, with “the Republicans for example”, to be able to “find a way”, she declared to the newspaper

Le Parisien.

  • Social Security

  • National Assembly

  • Elisabeth Borne